Economist calls for abolishment of strict migration policy

China is being urged to gradually abandon the Hukou system and allow free migration, as part of efforts to provide incentives for local governments to transform to a greener development model, an economist says.

"The central government has strong motivations to go green and is determined to transform to a greener and sustainable model," said Matthew Kahn, an economics professor at the University of South California, noting that criteria for green development had been included among key tasks in the 13th five year plan (16-20).

Despite with top level designs, some local governments "lack of incentives to go green" facing with downward economic headwinds, he said.

The central government has been moving away from using old regime standards to evaluate officials based only on GDP growth and social stability, and adjusted the promotion criteria for mayors by including more indicators, such as quality of life and environmental protection.

But it is a different scenario when it comes to provincial and municipal levels, according to Kahn.

"Transformation can be particularly difficult for some less-developed cities,"he said, citing examples of Xingtai, a city in Hebei province adjacent to Beijing, where officials are having a hard time making choices between low carbon development and to ensure economic growth.

Cities, with GDPs per capita above 130,000 dollars, based upon his research, can more easily "turn green "and would be benefited more by adopting green development strategies compared to those less-developed, according to his new book titled the rise of China's green cities that he co-authored with Zheng Siqi, an economics professor with Tsinghua University in China.

"There is no free lunch for China to go green,"he said, adding that some inland cities tend to continue to rely on heavily polluted industries to sustain short-term but not sustainable growth—relocating laid-offs is among key challenges for officials.

China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel sectors, official data showed.

Kahn said a possible solution might be loosening the migration restrictions incurred by Hukou system, a registration program that serves as a domestic passport, regulating rural-to-urban migration.

"For people in the overcapacity sectors, mostly middle-aged, it can be hard for them to learn something new,"he said, adding that it might be a better idea to allow them move to other places, find menial jobs similar to what they have been doing.

That would help those laid off in the overcapacity sectors to find new jobs in other cities and reduce certain level of pressure of local government, he said.

"The leadership needs to have to be smart to people in the dirty industries,"he said, "workers in the heavy industries need to be compensated."