Lecture Title

The Mechanism of Employment Stability’s Influence on Consumption Among the New Generation of Migrant Workers: An Empirical Analysis Based on the “My Job” Platform

Abstract

In the context of high-quality development and new urbanization, consumption has become a crucial driver for boosting domestic demand and economic growth in China. The new generation of migrant workers, a group with significant potential for consumption growth, has drawn considerable attention for their unique consumption psychology and behavior. A defining characteristic of this group in the labor market is low and highly variable employment stability. Exploring how employment stability affects their consumption behavior is a critical area for research. Utilizing data from “My Job,” a well-known blue-collar job recruitment platform, this study integrates consumption theory to investigate the mechanisms through which employment stability impacts various types of consumption among the new generation of migrant workers. Findings indicate a positive and stable impact of employment stability on their non-durable goods consumption, with income levels and urbanization intentions serving as potential pathways for this relationship. Further analysis reveals that increased average job duration and reduced early job turnover can improve individual consumption and raise effective consumption levels, particularly among informal workers. Compared to the older generation, the new generation of migrant workers tends to rely more on current income for consumption, making consumption smoothing challenging. To stimulate domestic demand by encouraging consumption among the new generation of migrant workers, enhancing their employment stability is essential. Possible approaches include creating a supportive business environment and public services by the government, providing better working and living conditions by companies, improving job-matching services by labor agencies, offering relevant information and behavioral nudges, and fostering workers' rational beliefs and self-discipline.

Speaker

Dr. Binglin Gong, Research Fellow (School of Economics and Management, East China Normal University)

Date and Time

Thursday, November 14, 2024, 14:30—16:00

Location

Meeting Room 347, Qiushe Building

Language

Chinese and English

Moderator

Prof. Qian Weng

Participants

All faculty and students are warmly invited to attend.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Binglin Gong holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland and is a Research Fellow, Zijiang Young Scholar, and Ph.D. supervisor at East China Normal University’s School of Economics and Management. She serves as the Academic Director of the Economics Elite Class, a member of the Academic Committee of the Institute of Statistics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, and is associated with the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Theories and Applications for Statistics and Data Science. Dr. Gong has previously held academic positions at Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University and has served as a research fellow at the Chinese-American Institute of Business and Law at UC Irvine. She has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Her research interests lie in experimental economics, behavioral economics, and applied microeconomics, focusing on behavioral decision-making, mechanism design, gender differences, information economics, and behavioral finance. Her work, combining theoretical modeling, experiments, and empirical methods, investigates how social environments, information, and rules influence decision-making. She has published in top international journals such as Management Science, Games and Economic Behavior, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, and Journal of Management Engineering. Dr. Gong has received the second prize in the Eighth National Humanities and Social Sciences Paper Awards and the first prize in the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Awards. She was named a Leading Talent of Shanghai in 2021 and was recognized as a High-Impact Scholar of China in 2023. Dr. Gong has led multiple national, provincial, and international research projects and serves as an academic committee member of the Chinese Forum on Behavioral and Experimental Economics, a council member of the Chinese Society of Operations Research Game Theory Branch, and a reviewer for prestigious journals, including The Economic Journal. She teaches model English-taught courses for international students and several exemplary university-level courses. Dr. Gong actively guides students in innovation and entrepreneurship projects and provides consulting for government and business sectors.