Projects
I am currently working on the following projects:
1. Multiple Home Ownership in Chinese Cities
China is a country of homeowners, with more than 90% households own their homes and more than 20% of urban households (16% of rural households) own multiple homes. This is much higher than in most developed countries. As we start to understand why Chinese households own homes, it remains unclear why so many Chinese households own multiple homes. Research on multiple homes in the West has focused on leisure consumption, life planning and family investment strategies, and rising mobility. Research on multiple homeownership in China is very limited. Earlier studies show that multiple homeownership in China is not only a result of maturing housing market, but also an unintended consequence of socialist housing policies at least in the early years of reform.
This project aims to examine recent patterns of multiple homeownership, scrutinize its driving forces, and explore its implications for housing inequality in Chinese cities. While investment and leisure consumption also encourage multiple homeownership in China, we argue that high rate of multiple homeownership achieved within a very short period of time is a result of the unique institutional and sociocultural contexts in China. China Household Finance Survey data will be utilized to test hypotheses.
This project aims to examine recent patterns of multiple homeownership, scrutinize its driving forces, and explore its implications for housing inequality in Chinese cities. While investment and leisure consumption also encourage multiple homeownership in China, we argue that high rate of multiple homeownership achieved within a very short period of time is a result of the unique institutional and sociocultural contexts in China. China Household Finance Survey data will be utilized to test hypotheses.
2. The Persistence of Institutional Discrimination and Migrants' Housing Conditions in Chinese Cities
China is in the midst of an urban revolution with hundreds of millions of migrants leaving villages for cities. Due to the socialist legacy and the discriminative Household Registration (hukou) System, migrants in Chinese cities have been treated as second class citizens and have been denied urban welfare benefits such as subsidized housing at least in the 20th century. Consequently, migrants have largely been left out of the spectacular housing success in China, and their poor housing conditions have been documented by existing studies. However, most existing studies are cross-sectional, and it is not clear how migrants’ housing consumption has changed over time and whether their status in the housing system has changed in the 21st century. Using national migrant dynamic survey (2010 and 2017), this paper aims to examine migrants’ housing consumption over time and study whether and how the driving forces have changed. Analyses show that despite some improvements in housing consumption over time, it is clear that migrants continue to suffer housing discrimination, which continues to exclude them from the dream of homeownership and accessing housing subsidies. In addition, migrants’ housing consumption are shaped by not only conventional sociodemographic factors (such as age, gender, household size, marital status, education and household income) but also factors unique to migrants such as their hukou status, their duration in cities, migration distance, and reasons for migration. The latter tend to become more important over time.
3. Commuting Pattern and Employment Change after Forced Relocation
With massive urban renewal and gentrification taking place in central cities, millions of urban residents in China are forced to move to suburbs. This displacement has tremendous impact on residents' life. This project aims to study residents' commuting pattern after forced relocation, and whether they experience employment change and how and why. A case study of Nanjing will be conducted using survey data from several resettlement communities.