TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Xu, Lei
AU  - Tani, Massimiliano
AU  - Zhu, Yu
AU  - Wen, Xin
        TI  - Formal and Informal Debt in China: Evidence from the 2014 Hukou Reform
        PY  - 2025/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17990
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17990
        AB  - We investigate the impact of China’s 2014 hukou reform - a major change allowing migrants living in small and medium-sized cities of less than 5 million people to apply for urban residence - on formal and informal borrowing at a time of rapid economic transformation. We find that the hukou policy change has predominantly increased natives’ access to finance, especially through informal sources, and for investments in housing. We also find that the policy affects households differently according to education level, with more educated households borrowing more to capitalise on rising asset prices driven by the ‘additional’ urban population created by the policy.
        KW  - formal and informal debt
KW  - hukou reform
KW  - migrants
        ER  -