How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China
Recent studies have shown that air quality is an important amenity for population relocation in China. However, much of Chinese internal migration occurs due to non-discretionary reasons, such as government policies, family considerations, and military personnel reassignments. As such, estimates of...
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doaj-333b7c7bb8214b2da7d42df976e813232021-07-01T00:28:28ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502021-06-01136872687210.3390/su13126872How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in ChinaMoon Joon Kim0Xiaolin Xie1Xiaochen Zhang2Energy Environment Policy and Technology, Graduate School of Energy and Environment (KU-KIST Green School), Korea University, Seoul 02841, KoreaSanford School of Public Policy and Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USADivision of Social Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan 215316, ChinaRecent studies have shown that air quality is an important amenity for population relocation in China. However, much of Chinese internal migration occurs due to non-discretionary reasons, such as government policies, family considerations, and military personnel reassignments. As such, estimates of the impact of environmental amenities on migration that do not control for migration reasons may be biased. Using the 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper estimates the impact of ambient air pollution on voluntary migration to other provinces for work. We find that more polluted days (air quality index (AQI) > 150) at the original residence leads to a significant increase in labor out-migration to a province with better air quality, providing evidence of the current migration trend leading to declining populations in China’s megacities. Our findings indicate that environmental migration is more favored among households that are less educated, are older, work overtime, and have lower income, suggesting that environmental migration may result from environmental health inequalities in socially disadvantaged families.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6872air qualitylabor migrationenvironmental health inequality |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Moon Joon Kim Xiaolin Xie Xiaochen Zhang |
spellingShingle |
Moon Joon Kim Xiaolin Xie Xiaochen Zhang How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China Sustainability air quality labor migration environmental health inequality |
author_facet |
Moon Joon Kim Xiaolin Xie Xiaochen Zhang |
author_sort |
Moon Joon Kim |
title |
How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China |
title_short |
How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China |
title_full |
How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China |
title_fullStr |
How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China |
title_full_unstemmed |
How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China |
title_sort |
how does an environmental amenity attract voluntary migrants? evidence from ambient air quality in china |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
Recent studies have shown that air quality is an important amenity for population relocation in China. However, much of Chinese internal migration occurs due to non-discretionary reasons, such as government policies, family considerations, and military personnel reassignments. As such, estimates of the impact of environmental amenities on migration that do not control for migration reasons may be biased. Using the 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper estimates the impact of ambient air pollution on voluntary migration to other provinces for work. We find that more polluted days (air quality index (AQI) > 150) at the original residence leads to a significant increase in labor out-migration to a province with better air quality, providing evidence of the current migration trend leading to declining populations in China’s megacities. Our findings indicate that environmental migration is more favored among households that are less educated, are older, work overtime, and have lower income, suggesting that environmental migration may result from environmental health inequalities in socially disadvantaged families. |
topic |
air quality labor migration environmental health inequality |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6872 |
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