Rural Panel Surveys in Developing Countries: A Selective Review

Rural panel surveys are the most appropriate source of data for studying the unprecedented rapid migration and urbanization currently taking place in China and other developing countries. This paper provides a selective review, focusing on the panel survey methodologies of several studies, which are organized based on our proposed four key elements of panel surveys: representativeness, retrospect-prospect, multilevel tracking, and temporality. To maximize heterogeneity in urbanization and development over the last three decades, we select rural panel surveys from five Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, and China. We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the selected panel surveys to provide directions for designing future rural panel surveys in China and elsewhere in the developing world.