Consumption Structure of Migrant Worker Families in China

This study draws on a survey of migrants in 12 cities across four major urbanizing areas in China and investigates the structure of migrant worker families＇urban and rural consumption. The results show that the structure of migrant worker families＇ consumption has been dominated by survival consumption. These families tend to live frugally in cities while engaging in conspicuous consumption in their rural hometowns. The structure of migrant worker families＇consumption is mainly shaped by their income stability and wealth levels rather than their current income level. Moreover, migrant worker families with high educational levels and those who intend to settle permanently in cities are likely to allocate substantial expenditure to status and hedonic consumption and to upgrade their urban consumption structure.

City size and employment dynamics in China:Evidence from recruitment website data

This article explored China’s urban employment dynamics with particular focus on the city size effect.Big data derived from the largest recruitment website were used to examine the direct and indirect impacts of city size on employment demand by using mediating and moderating models.We also investigated the roles of the government and location factors which have seldom been considered in literature.Results showed that the concentration degree of new jobs is higher than that of stock employment and population across cities,implying a path dependency mechanism of job creation and employment expansion.Meanwhile,numerous job posts in inland central cities are probably a symptom of more even distribution of employment in future China.Econometric models further verified the significant correlation between city size and job creation.Moreover,industrial diversity,fixed asset investment,and spatial location have heterogeneous effects on employment demand in cities of different sizes and different levels of administration.These results can not only deepen our understanding of the crucial role of city size in urban employment growth but also demonstrate the future trend of labor and population geography of China.Policy implications are then proposed for job creation in cities of China and other developing countries.

Spatial analyses of factors affecting household structure in Chinese cities:The case of three-generation lineal households

Household structure is an important aspect of family change during China’s modernization process.Existing literature has demonstrated significant associations between various factors and household structure,but the spatial variation in these relationships has not been examined.Using the 2010 Chinese population census data and geographically weighted regression(GWR)model,this study explored the spatial patterns of three-generation lineal households,a functionally important household type in China,and its influencing factors.There was significant heterogeneity in the distribution of three-generation lineal households.Socioeconomic,demographic,and cultural factors were all significantly related to the proportion of three-generation lineal households,but the relationships are place-specific in terms of direction and magnitude.These results suggest that the distribution of Chinese household structures cannot be explained by a single framework of family modernization theory but is determined by the interplay of various local characteristics.Especially,population migration plays an equally important role in affecting household structure than socioeconomic development in China.This work contributes to the family literature by highlighting the spatial heterogeneity in the impact of varying factors on household structure.Beyond the classic modernization theory,it sets a contextualized framework for understanding how Chinese household change in response to the rapid social transformation.