Fertility responses to the relaxation of migration restrictions: Evidence from the Hukou reform in China

This study examines the impact of a relaxation of internal migration restrictions on internal migrants' fertility in China. Exploiting the variation in the city-by-city rollout of the Hukou reform after 2014, we find that lifting barriers to local citizenship significantly increases fertility among unregistered migrants, and the positive effect mainly appears in second-child births. An investigation of potential mechanisms suggests that the Hukou reform is associated with improved access to public services, better integration into the host society, and a significant increase in intermarriages with locals.