Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 18;19(20):13435. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013435.
While a growing number of farmers migrate to urban sectors to engage in off-farm employment, little is known whether and how the migration working experience (MWE) changes farmers, especially their social capital. Using a survey data set with 2863 farm households in 14 provinces in China, we developed a mediation model to examine the impact of MWE on social capital, as well as the roles of household income, farmers' risk attitude, and information and communications technologies (ICTs). We show that MWE has a significantly positive impact on social capital and weak ties in social capital, which is mediated by household income, risk attitude, and ICT adoption. In particular, MWE can increase income, enhance risk preference, and promote ICT adoption, thus, leading to higher social capital. Moreover, ICTs play a moderating role in the impact of MWE on income and risk preference, that is, ICTs can decrease the impact of MWE on income, and completely substitute the impact of MWE on risk attitude. Our study provides an explanation for the reason why farmers are willing to migrate despite unfavorable working conditions they may endure in urban areas.
虽然越来越多的农民迁移到城市部门从事非农就业，但对于迁移工作经验（MWE）是否以及如何改变农民，尤其是他们的社会资本，知之甚少。本研究使用了来自中国 14 个省份的 2863 户农户的调查数据集，通过中介模型来检验 MWE 对社会资本的影响，以及家庭收入、农民风险态度和信息通信技术（ICTs）的作用。结果表明，MWE 对社会资本和弱社会关系具有显著的正向影响，这种影响是通过家庭收入、风险态度和 ICT 采用来实现的。具体而言，MWE 可以增加收入、增强风险偏好和促进 ICT 采用，从而提高社会资本。此外，ICTs 在 MWE 对收入和风险偏好的影响中发挥了调节作用，即 ICTs 可以降低 MWE 对收入的影响，并完全替代 MWE 对风险态度的影响。本研究为农民尽管在城市地区可能面临不利的工作条件仍愿意迁移提供了一种解释。
