Leave Behind or Migrate? Evidence from a Field Experiment in China

With the great economic and social development achieved in China in the past 40 years of reform and opening-up has come the extensive flow of China’s very large rural labour force between urban and rural areas and among regions, as well as populations of left-behind children and migrant children who cannot be ignored. In this paper, four populations—non-left-behind children in rural areas, left-behind children in rural areas, migrant children in urban areas, and local children in urban areas—were recruited in a large-scale field experiment. It was found that both being left behind and migrating had an effect on the children’s prosocial behaviour (including fairness, trust, trustworthiness, cooperation, and honesty) and economic decision-making (including time preferences and competition preferences); moreover, the effect on migrant children was relatively greater, but this effect dissipated progressively as the time since migration increased. Additionally, shorter migration distances were associated with a decreased effect of migration on migrant children, and having access to one parent had a positive effect on left-behind children. Psychological factors mediated the effect of being left behind or migrating on the behaviours and preferences of the children. Being left behind and migrating affected not only the academic achievement of elementary school students but their self-confidence about learning