Employment in the home county and migrant workers’ subjective well-being: evidence from China

Purpose This study examines the effect of employment in their home county on the subjective well-being of migrant workers, given the increasing share of migrant workers choosing employment in the home county in recent years. Design/methodology/approach We use China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data from 2016, 2018 and 2020. To better understand whether there is a causal relationship between employment location and an individual’s subjective well-being, we employ a variety of empirical strategies. For example, the ordered probit model, propensity score matching (PSM), the conditional mixed process (CMP) combining instrumental variables strategy and omitted variable testing. Findings We find that choosing to employ in the home county significantly improves the subjective well-being of migrant workers, but this effect does not hold for migrant workers who do not have children or who work in government departments, state-owned enterprises, institutions, foreign companies, etc. We also find that this effect only appears in the years following the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. Originality/value Firstly, we expand the body of research on non-agricultural work or choice of employment location. Secondly, we pay great attention to the potential endogeneity through a variety of methods to ensure the reliability of the research results, which provides a reference for future empirical analyses of the impact of employment in the home county or return to the home county.