The Impact of Urban Health Care on Migrants’ Settlement Intention: Evidence from China

Yidong Wu (), Yuanyuan Zha, Mengyuan Ge, Hao Sun () and Honghong Gui
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Yidong Wu: School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
Yuanyuan Zha: School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
Mengyuan Ge: School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
Hao Sun: School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
Honghong Gui: School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-19

Abstract: Improving migrants’ settlement intention is of great importance in the process of China’s new urbanization. By exploiting the data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey conducted by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, this study empirically explores the effects of urban health care on migrants’ settlement intentions. Urban health care is measured by the establishment of migrants’ health records in this article. Additionally, marginal effect analysis, propensity score matching, the random sampling method, the placebo test, and the two-stage least squares method are adopted to tackle potential selection bias and endogeneity concerns. As indicated by the empirical results, urban health care could significantly improve the migrants’ settlement intention. After controlling for the influence of individual characteristics, household characteristics, and migration characteristics, urban health care still plays a significant role in promoting settlement intention. As revealed by the heterogeneity analysis, urban healthcare effects are significantly larger for migrants with agricultural hukou registration, a spouse, younger age, higher income level, and moving into the first and second-tier cities. Meanwhile, considering the impact of housing pressure on migrants’ settlement intentions, this study uses household housing expenditure as a moderator to further analyze the relationship between urban health care and settlement intention. It is found that housing pressure can weaken the positive effect of urban health care on migrants’ settlement intention. The research conclusions contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the migrants’ settlement decisions and provide rich implications for city managers and policymakers.

Keywords: urban health care; migrants; settlement intention; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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