Does Air Pollution Influence the Settlement Intention of the Floating Population in China? Individual Heterogeneity and City Characteristics

Xinxian Wang, Jun He (), Tim Futing Liao () and Gaoxiang Gu
Additional contact information
Xinxian Wang: Institute of Urban and Demographic Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai 200023, China
Jun He: Institute of Social Security, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Tim Futing Liao: Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Gaoxiang Gu: School of Social Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Serious air pollution has caused widespread concern in Chinese society in recent years. China’s floating population plays an important role in China’s economic development, and the determinants of the floating population’s settlement intentions have attracted increasing attention. Using the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey Data (CMDS) and the satellite grid data of global PM2.5 concentration as well as city-level data, this study investigated the influences of air quality on migrants’ settlement intention, in particular, individual heterogeneity and city characteristics. Using an instrumental variable to correct for endogeneity, we found that air pollution has a significant negative effect on the settlement intentions of China’s floating population. Migrants who were older, better educated and with poorer health are more sensitive to air pollution with regard to settlement intention. Meanwhile, settlement intentions are also influenced by individual adaptability: Respondents with better air quality in their hometown are more sensitive to air pollution. Poor air pollution has not weakened the attractiveness of Tier-1 cities to the floating population, nor has the administrative level of a city.

Keywords: air pollution; floating population; settlement intention; individual heterogeneity; city characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/2995/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/2995/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:2995-:d:1060488

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().