Comments by Bhanupong Nidhipraba, on Inclusive Urban Employment: How Does City Scale Affect Job Opportunities for Different People?

Bhanupong Nidhipraba: The objectives of the paper are to find the impact of China's rapidly growing cities on employment. Because inclusive urban employment would make China realize inclusive economic growth, the government needs to understand the effects of economic agglomeration on employment. The authors test two hypotheses: (1) probabilities of individual employment are higher in big cities because of higher labor productivity; and (2) individuals with different skill levels benefit from city scale differently. Based on data from the 2002 and 2007 Chinese Household Income Surveys (hukou) for urban households with a sample size of 6,835 households and 20,632 individuals, probit models of employment determination are estimated. All individual samples are local urban hukou identities. The estimated models use population and the number of college graduates as city scale variables. The estimated coefficients from these two variables would answer the research question of whether city size determines employment...