This book explores China’s hukou system, by which individuals are registered in a specific geographic region, and the prospects for reform. The history of the hukou system and its instrumental role in Chinese urbanization and labor markets is explained, and readers get a sense of what issues are prioritized by Chinese policymakers as they contemplate reform or change to this system, from hukou- based labor market discrimination, inequality of opportunity, multi-dimensional poverty of rural migrants, the public health consequences of non-hukou migration, and old age insurance for migrants without hukous. The author concludes with a stirring and practical call for hukou reform, articulating a cost-benefit model and providing an array of policy suggestions. This book will interest scholars of Chinese society, demographics and future urbanization.

Yang Song is currently a Professor and Assistant Dean of School of Economics at Renmin University of China; he obtained a Ph.D degree in Economics from the Department of Economics at Cornell University in 2013. His research interest mainly lies in labor and development economics with a focus on income distribution and labor market issues in China.