Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of labour-protectionistic institutions on the awareness of city workers about how they are ‘protected’ in society and its effect on workers’ attitudes for skill formation. We pay attention to the differentiated arrangements of labour institutions between migrant workers from rural areas, who have advanced their awareness of labour rights during this decade, and locally-raised city dwellers who have been protected better by pre-existing registrations. We also pay attention to the differences between the two regions; Beijing, where clear divides in labour regulations still exist, and Southern Jiangsu Province where migrant workers have been more generously integrated with locals for a long time. Our basic framework follows the discussion of ‘diversity of capitalism’, in which the mix of social labour-protection system and firms’ employment protection system affect the workers’ choice of skills such as general, industry-specific and firm-specific skills.
