Research on the Determination of Rural Labor Shift in Less Developed Regions of China-- Empirical Evidence Come from Jiangxi Province

This paper focuses on the determination of rural labor shift from agriculture to nonagricultural industry in less developed regions of China with Jiangxi province as the case. In the paper, the authors establish an econometrics model based on the statistical data of Jiangxi province from 1978 to 2004, and state that the main determinative variables of affecting rural labor shift in less developed regions of China include four factors: the proportion of the first industry in GDP, the rural-urban income gap, the unemployment rate of cities and towns, and the ratio of junior high school enrollments to primary school graduate students. Other four influence factors do not show the significant effect on the rural labor shift. The conclusions of quantitative analysis based on empirical data indicate that, in order to promote rural labor shift from agriculture to nonagricultural industry and increase farmer´s income effectively, the less developed regions including Jiangxi province have to adopt various positive policies and measures to speed up the progress of industrialization and urbanization, push forward the development of nonagricultural industry in rural areas, get rid of institutional obstacles resulting in rural-urban separation to build up rural-urban integrated labor market, and pay much attention and stronger fund supports to rural education and human resource development