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State, market, and family: housing inequality among the young generation in urban China

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Abstract

Housing is critical to people's prosperity and wellbeing. In particular, housing status is closely linked to young people's life opportunities in many domains. With skyrocketing housing prices in many cities, housing outcomes of the current young generation in China are receiving increased attention. In this study, we examine the recent pattern of housing inequality among the young generation in urban China based on a large-scale national representative survey conducted in 2015, and we explore the importance of different types of factors. From an intragenerational perspective, we investigate the relative strengths between socialist institutions and market mechanisms. We also take into account the intergenerational channel by studying the impact of family background variables. We find substantial inequality in terms of home ownership, living space, and housing wealth among young people. While market ability variables, such as income and education, significantly affect housing consumption, institutional factors, such as the household registration (hukou) system, work units, and administrative rank, still play important roles in contemporary China. Furthermore, the impact of parental socioeconomic and political status is also nontrivial. In particular, the hukou status of young people and their parents has a sizable impact on housing consumption. China’s policymakers should pay more attention to the housing needs of young people and take concrete measures to expand the equality of opportunities.

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Notes

  1. Under the hukou system, each resident is assigned a hukou location and a rural or urban hukou classification, which are normally inherited at birth from one’s parents (Li et al. 2010).

  2. In response to rising public appeal for social integration and social inclusion, since the late 2000s the Chinese government has initiated a variety of plans to alleviate the hukou problem and improve migrants’ housing conditions, though the effectiveness of those reforms remains in question (Huang et al. 2013; Huang 2013).

  3. Under the HPF program, employees contribute a specific percentage of gross salaries to their individual HPF accounts and employers match with an equal amount. Employees enrolled in the HPF program can withdraw money from their HPF accounts to pay for housing-related expenses such as home purchases, home downpayments, mortgage payments, and home improvement. In addition, the HPF participants are eligible for discounted mortgage loans.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the 111 Project of China (No. B16040) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71904160).

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  1. Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University and Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

    Geng Niu & Guochang Zhao

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Niu, G., Zhao, G. State, market, and family: housing inequality among the young generation in urban China. J Hous and the Built Environ 36, 89–111 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-020-09740-w

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