Quality of life in Chinese cities

Tie Shi, Wenzhang Zhu and Shihe Fu ()

China Economic Review, 2021, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: The Rosen-Roback spatial equilibrium theory states that cross-city variations in wages and housing prices reflect urban residents' willingness to pay for urban amenities or quality of life. This paper is the first to quantify and rank the quality of life in Chinese cities based on the Rosen-Roback model. Using the 2005 1% Population Intercensus Survey data, we estimate the wage and housing hedonic models. The coefficients of urban amenity variables in both hedonic models are considered the implicit prices of amenities and are used as the weights to compute the quality of life for each prefecture-level city in China. In general, provincial capital cities and cities with nice weather, good air quality, and accessible public transit have high quality of life. We also find that urban quality of life is positively associated with the subjective well-being of urban residents.

Keywords: Spatial equilibrium; Hedonic model; Urban amenity; Quality of life; Life satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Quality of Life in Chinese Cities (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:69:y:2021:i:c:s1043951x21001000

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101682

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