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City Size and Permanent Settlement Intention: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yanjiao Song

    (The Center for Modern Chinese City Studies, Institute of Urban Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

  • Nina Zhu

    (The Center for Modern Chinese City Studies, Institute of Urban Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

  • Feng Luo

    (China Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)

Abstract

The location choice and livelihoods of rural-urban migrants are critical to the sustainable development of cities. By using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) in 2017, this paper extant the Rosen–Roback’s model by adding factors of urban social network and air pollution to the function of the individual utility of migrants. Both the Probit Model and IV estimates imply evidence of an inverse U-shaped pattern of city size and migrants’ permanent settlement in urban China. This view proves that Chinese migrants like to settle permanently in large cities, but not mega-cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. The internal mechanism is explained by the agglomeration economies and the crowing effect brought by city size. In mega-cities, the attractiveness of the city caused by wage premium cannot offset the combined repulsive force caused by the high housing price, bad urban social network, air pollution, and health deterioration. It is worth noting that air pollution has a significant negative impact on the settlement intention of migrants, such as health conditions and precipitation. Besides, there is heterogeneity among high-skilled migrants and low-skilled migrants in different city sizes. Our findings enhance the understanding of “Escape from megacities” in China and have implications for the reform of the housing security system and the exploration of the urbanization path.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanjiao Song & Nina Zhu & Feng Luo, 2022. "City Size and Permanent Settlement Intention: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:676-:d:720012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Qingjun Zhao & Meijing Song & Hanrui Wang, 2022. "Voting with Your Feet: The Impact of Urban Public Health Service Accessibility on the Permanent Migration Intentions of Rural Migrants in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Ming Guan & Hongyi Guan, 2024. "Sense of community and residential well-being among rural-urban migrants in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Xinxian Wang & Jun He & Tim Futing Liao & Gaoxiang Gu, 2023. "Does Air Pollution Influence the Settlement Intention of the Floating Population in China? Individual Heterogeneity and City Characteristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.

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