Zhiming Cheng

Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: a comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals

This study investigates determinants of happiness and job satisfaction of urban locals, first-generation migrants and new-generation migrants in China’s urban workforce. We present evidence to suggest that new-generation migrants are less satisfied with their jobs and lives than first-generation migrants, despite having higher income. This finding is consistent with aspirations rising faster than income in China’s fast-growing urban economy.

The impact of China’s new Labour Contract Law on socioeconomic outcomes for migrant and urban workers

This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjective well-being and wages, but not for hours worked.

A distributional analysis of wage discrimination against migrant workers in China’s urban labour market:

Chinese internal migrants without a local hukou (household registration) are often discriminated against in the urban labour market. This study examines the impacts of such discrimination on wage differentials and the distribution among urban locals, urban migrants and rural migrants. It uses an extended analytical framework of segmented labour market to examine the multiple segmentations between urban residents and rural migrants and between locals and non-locals. The results show that, compared with urban locals, rural migrants only face discrimination above the medium-wage level, while urban migrants face discrimination below the medium-wage level, but to a much lesser degree. Owing to structural differences in employment, urban locals (rather than migrant workers) are discriminated against at other wage levels. The results suggest that the hukou system still plays an important role in segmenting China’s urban labour market. The degree of discrimination against urban migrants relative to urban locals is greater than that against rural migrants relative to urban migrants. This suggests that nowadays China’s urban labour market is mainly characterised by the segmentation between locals and non-locals, rather than the segmentation between urban residents and rural migrants, which was the case in the past.

The changing and different patterns of urban redevelopment in China: a study of three inner-city neighborhoods

Chinas urban growth is phenomenal, but some studies tend to see it as a consistent macro process without much turbulence at the micro levels. This article examines inner-city redevelopment in China by analyzing the cases of three types of neighborhoods: a work-unit compound, a historic quarter, and an urban village. It discusses how these projects were implemented, which actors were involved, and who the beneficiaries were. It argues that different patterns of redevelopment were applied in individual redevelopment projects, although all of these projects were property led. The local states considerations when applying a particular pattern depends on institutional abilities, arrangements, recourses, and aims, as well as the power relations between the state, market, and community. A comparison of processes and outcomes shows that a top-down approach applied through delegated agencies or the immediate authority of the local state tends to implement redevelopment in a coalition with developers instead of considering the benefits for the affected residents and the preservation of the values of historic neighborhoods. In contrast, the bottom-up approach to the redevelopment of urban villages empowers the collective and villagers and enables them to benefit relatively more from the project. The local state has changed its role from an administrator to a facilitator, and has made significant economic concessions to advance the project in the context of significant policy changes in recent years.

Why Give it Away When You Need it Yourself? Understanding Public Support for Foreign Aid in China

Abstract In this study we examine the determinants of public support for foreign aid in China. We find that while political ideology and sense of national identity are the most important determinants of support for foreign aid, several demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and income, are also important. We also find that those living in the lower income western provinces and in provinces with higher poverty rates express less support for giving foreign aid. We draw policy implications from the findings for better targeting engagement strategies designed to garner support for foreign aid.

Layoffs in China's City of Textiles: Adaptation to Change

Abstract Urban poverty among laid-off workers has become one of the major challenges confronting China due to the massive retrenchment of state employees since the 1990s. While a great deal of research has focused on the general situation or the analysis of aggregate-level data, the workers themselves have been given much less attention. Based on data from Shaanxi Province, this paper examines the current status of the former state workers and their families in the once-prosperous “City of Textiles,” a district of state-owned textile mills and affiliated residential areas where the risk of slum development and marginalisation of former state workers has increased since economic reform. These textile workers had devoted themselves to hard work, acted as communist zealots and performed family duties at the same time, believing that the government would take care of their families. However, the poverty induced by the layoff programme has not only altered their lives and deteriorated intra-family relationships, but has also pushed some laid-off workers into various illegal activities to maintain household finances and to pay for rapidly rising tuition fees and medical expenses. We contest the commonly held view that poverty faced by former state workers is of their own making and show that current government anti-poverty strategies are inadequate to deal with the problem.

The New Generation of Migrant Workers in Urban China

After three decades of contributing to the Chinese economy and society, the first generation of rural-to-urban migrant workers is being replaced by a new generation in the urban labour market. The study aims to better depict the nature of the cohort, and thus promotes a better understanding of this group. This study presents a different portrait of migrant workers from previous research because getting urban jobs and wage income has become a means to embrace urban life for new-generation migrant workers, rather than the sole or major purpose of migration. In contrast to their predecessors, these new migrant workers are younger, better educated, less connected to the countryside, and have a broad urban dream. This study draws on original data from interviews of migrant workers, employers, managers and government officials, comparing the two generations and examining their living and working conditions and aspirations in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong province. They are in difficulties and confusion caused by a long-standing rural–urban divide, thwarted by institutional barriers and market forces. Investments in rural human capital development, in addition to institutional reform, are needed to address their concerns.

Labor Contract, Trade Union Membership, and Workplace Relations: A Study of Migrant Workers in Guangdong Province, China

Based on survey data collected in Guangdong province in 2009, this chapter examines the workplace relations and satisfaction with employment conditions among migrant workers after the implementation of the 2007 Labor Contract Law (LCL). Our analysis shows that trade union membership and better understanding of the LCL helped improve migrant workers’ access to labor contracts. Trade union members were also more likely to sign medium-term contracts than short- or open-term contracts. Also, a better understanding of the LCL improved migrant workers’ satisfaction with the labor contracts they signed. However, having a labor contract also came with reduced monthly wages, and sometimes coexisted with rights violations against migrant workers. This implies that employers may have been duplicitous in setting up contracts, and that while trade unions might have generated some positives for employee benefits, these may have actually come at the cost of better monthly wages. We also found that the degree of familiarity with the LCL, rather than the presence of a trade union, played a statistically positive role in determining monthly incomes, suggesting that labor authorities need to strengthen the enforcing abilities and effective functions of trade unions.

From planned to market economy: the rise and fall of the City of Textiles, Xi'an

Urban change in north-western China, an important region in economic history terms, has received relatively scant attention in the existing literature. To help fill this gap, this article examines the evolution of a state-owned industrial area called the City of Textiles, in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, from its establishment and rise during the planned economy to its decline, deterioration, and redevelopment in the new market economy. The article focuses particularly on the roles played by the state and other factors relevant in the transformation, as well as exploring the experiences of local residents and businesses.

Consumption and Happiness

Abstract We examine the relationship between (relative) consumption and happiness using panel data for China, an important developing country. We find that consumption has a positive effect on happiness. An increase in the average consumption of those of the same age, education and gender at the community level has a positive effect on happiness, consistent with a signalling effect, while an increase in the consumption of the highest spenders in this group engenders a jealousy effect. There is mixed evidence that conspicuous consumption and consumption that increases social connectedness increases happiness, while relative deprivation in visible consumption has strong negative effects on happiness. Our findings add to the literature on the effect of relativities in influencing individual happiness.