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The Index Construction and Evaluation of Quality of Life in China and Its Spatial Mismatch with Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from a City-Level Perspective

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Abstract

Over the past two decades, China has undergone a rapid urbanization process. As such, determining the current status of the quality of life in Chinese cities and how to improve it has become a common concern for all sectors of Chinese society. This paper employs a combination of city-level macro data and individual-level micro data to construct a quality of life evaluation system that contains 9 dimensions and 35 secondary indicators. The quality of life of 194 cities in China has been further assessed using the Pena distance method (DP2). The study found that there are significant regional differences in the quality of life in Chinese cities, with the quality of life in China's large cities being significantly higher than that in small and medium-sized cities. The analysis of Ivanovic discrimination coefficient shows that social security, culture and education and infrastructure are the most important factors affecting the quality of life in Chinese cities. Spatial mismatch analysis reveals that the quality of life and subjective well-being differ significantly in Chinese cities. In addition, this paper provides policy recommendations to improve the quality of urban life in China and to reduce the imbalance in the quality of life between regions.

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Notes

  1. We use R language to complete the above iterative process.

  2. Data source:

    http://www.stats.gov.cn/zs/tjwh/tjkw/tjzl/202302/t20230215_1907918.html?eqid=92d62b8e0006f18c000000056427a85d. The reason for choosing the 2018 China City Statistical Yearbook is to complete data matching. In order to comprehensively measure the quality of life in Chinese cities, we use a combination of macro and micro indicators when constructing an indicator system. Some micro data, such as the individuals’ work time and leisure time, are only available as of 2017 for Chinese residents' time used survey.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (72163023); General Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (23BGL174); Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of china (2023JQ05); 2023 Central Plains Talent - Central Plains Cultural Youth Talent Program, 2023 He-Luo Talent – He-Luo Cultural Youth Talent Program, and the 2023 Luoyang Normal University Youth Key Teacher Training Program. We appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their valuable revision suggestions. Wang Pengfei and Wang Yu have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.

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  1. Pengfei Wang and Yu Wang have contributed equally to this work, and are co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang, 471934, China

    Pengfei Wang

  2. Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Pengfei Wang

  3. School of Public Economics and Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Linna Li

  4. School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010000, China

    Yu Wang

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Wang, P., Li, L. & Wang, Y. The Index Construction and Evaluation of Quality of Life in China and Its Spatial Mismatch with Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from a City-Level Perspective. Soc Indic Res 170, 955–985 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03228-0

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