The Impact of Internet Development on Labor Mobility

Abstract

This paper makes a theoretical analysis on the impact of Internet development on the floating population's willingness to stay. It uses the method of principal component analysis to measure the Internet development level of 290 cities in China. On this basis, it matches the micro data of individual labor force and empirically tests the impact of Internet development on the floating population's willingness to stay. The research finds that the development level of urban Internet will limit and reduce the migrant population's willingness to emigrate. For each unit of urban Internet development, the possibility of labor force's intention to emigrate from the city will be reduced by 11.44%; Compared with the middle-aged and the old and the low skilled labor force, the middle-aged and the young and the high skilled urban labor force are more sensitive and responsive to the Internet, and are more likely to be encouraged by the development of the Internet and choose to stay in their cities. This study provides policy implications for urban talent attraction and labor competition.