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There is now recognition that a population's overall level of well-being is defined not just by income and wealth. Where we live and who we interact with are likely to be equally important in our overall levels of satisfaction with our lives. This thinking has stimulated studies of subjective well-being, or happiness, at both national and local scales. These studies suggest that where you live does matter, although it is health and family status that have the most direct effects on well-being. In this study, we use a detailed dataset on well-being from the China Household Finance Survey to reexamine well-being across China, where profound socioeconomic changes are taking place. The study controls for self-reported health and examines subjective well-being across extensive and varied Chinese urban and rural environments. We find that the earlier pessimism about China's well-being, which emphasized declining happiness, may be misplaced. We make two contributions: first, we show a rising level of subjective well-being, and second, we show that there is a narrowing gap in well-being across different social indicators. Methodologically, we bring in the perspectives of both social capital and geographic context.

Previous research has shown that households are sensitive to commuting distance. In particular, households beyond a threshold distance move closer to the job when they change residence. The questions which motivate this paper are – how does race affect the probability of moving closer to the job when households change residence, and is there a trade off between commuting distance and neighborhood composition? Using a specialized data set the research shows that the commuting behaviors of minority and white households are consistent with the overall hypothesis that households minimize their commuting distance whenever possible. The research also shows that there is a tendency for both white and black households to choose slightly more integrated settings after changing residences. Yet, black households have to juggle the trade-off between neighborhoods with high socio-economic status and commute distance and those who choose higher socio-economic status neighborhoods have longer commutes.

Previous research has shown that households are sensitive to commuting distance. A model of the responses to work-residence separation showed that the probability of moving closer to the job was a function of increasing distance from the work place. In particular, households beyond a threshold distance moved closer to the job when they changed residence. The question which is central in this paper is how race affects the probability of moving closer to the job when households change residence. Using a specialized data set the research shows that the commuting behaviors of relatively affluent minority and white households are consistent with the overall hypothesis that households minimize their commuting distance whenever possible. Thus, when we hold socio-economic status constant, there are negligible differences int he responses of white and minority households. Both household types are likely to move closer to their work locations with greater distances from the work location.

This research uses a longitudinal data set of commuting behavior to test the nature and strength of the association between residential change and employment location. Do households minimize commuting distances when they change residences and what are the differences for one-worker and two-worker households? The analysis utilizes descriptive measures of distance and time to work for pre- and post-residential relocations and develops estimates from a probability model of work-place attraction. We extend earlier research on commuting distances by using a multimodal rather than a monocentric city, by specifically considering the commuting responses of two-worker households and by formally estimating a model of the response to commuting distances. The findings indicate that both one- and two-worker households with greater separation between workplace and residence make decreases in distance and time. Overall, as other studies have shown, women commute shorter distances and are more likely to minimize commuting after a move than are men. The probability model fits the likelihood of decreasing distance with greater separation and provides a more exact specification of the connection between residence and workplace than previous analyses of this relationship.

Aiming to introduce market mechanisms to an administratively managed and heavily subsidized housing system, the ongoing housing reform in urban China has brought dramatic changes in housing provision and consumption. Chinese households have started to enjoy freedom of housing choice that was not possible in socialist China. Yet, their choices are constrained because of the transitional nature of the current housing system where both institutional forces and market mechanisms operate. It is the goal of this research to examine how these two types of forces interact and how households make their housing choices in the transitional housing system. In contrast to the economic and socio-demographic perspectives on housing choices in the Western literature, I argue that a framework incorporating social relationships between the state, work units and employees is needed to understand households’ housing choice in transitional urban China. Associated with housing choices, the homogenous residential pattern in socialist China is gradually changing and a residential sorting is in process. It is also my goal to study the change of residential patterns and its dynamics in urban China.Four research questions are proposed: (1) What kinds of individual and household characteristics affect housing choice, and how relevant are the existing Western theories? (2) What are the roles of work units in housing choice in transitional urban China? (3) What is the role of the central state in constraining housing choice in transitional urban China? (4) Is a new form of residential pattern emerging? What factors contribute to the change of residential patterns and how relevant are the existing Western theories? A complementary methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative analyses, both national studies and case studies will be employed. The data include a national survey data, in-depth interviews in three cities, and archival data such as housing policies and housing statistics. A multi-level logistic model will be used to examine individual, household, work unit level and state level factors affecting households’ housing choices, and maps on residential patterns will be created.

Housing reform in China has changed its housing market as the rate of multiple home ownership has increased, causing concerns about housing inequality. Existing studies analysed the influence of institutional and market factors on multiple home ownership, but few examined the changes in institutional factors. The present study aimed to address this research gap and found that households with local hukou, better occupational status or working in units of the party, government or state institutions are more likely to own multiple homes. Furthermore, the study investigated the impacts of institutional factors on multiple home ownership. Changing influences of institutional factors due to progressive reform were noted. Market reform reduced the influence of household registration and work units, whereas the effect of occupational status persists owing to incomplete reform. Progressive reform can lead to asymmetric changes in the role of institutional factors, supporting the coexistence of competing market transition theory and power persistence theory. Policy recommendations and implications are provided finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00890.x Byline: YOUQIN HUANG (1), LEIWEN JIANG (2) Keywords: housing; inequality; Chinese cities Abstract: Abstract The market transition in China has resulted in significant social inequality, including housing inequality, in a formerly egalitarian society. This article provides both a conceptual framework and an empirical analysis of housing inequality in transitional urban China. Using the 1995 1% Population Survey and the 2000 Census data for Beijing, it shows that there was significant housing inequality between different socio-economic and institutional groups, and that the reforms in the late 1990s aggravated it. While emerging market mechanisms began to contribute to housing inequality, socialist institutions such as the household registration (hukou) system continued to be significant in the late 1990s, although there is evidence of the declining importance of other institutional factors such as political status. This study contributes to the market transition debate by arguing that different elements of the socialist institutions follow different paths in the reform and thus have different impacts on social inequality. Resume En Chine, le marche de transition s'est traduit par une inegalite sociale considerable, y compris en matiere de logement, dans une societe autrefois egalitaire. Cet article fournit un cadre conceptuel et une analyse empirique de l'inegalite du logement dans la Chine urbaine en transition. Exploitant les donnees de l'enquete sur 1% de la population nationale de 1995 et celles du recensement de 2000 pour Beijing, il montre qu'il existait une nette inegalite de logement entre differents groupes socio-economiques et institutionnels, laquelle a ete aggravee par les reformes de la fin des annees 1990. Tandis que les mecanismes d'un marcheemergent se sont mis a alimenter l'inegalite de logement, des institutions socialistes telles que le systeme d'enregistrement des menages (hukou) ont garde leur preponderance, meme si on peut demontrer le recul d'autres facteurs institutionnels comme la position politique. Cette etude s'inscrit dans le debat sur le marche de transition en affirmant que differents elements des institutions socialistes suivent des trajectoires differentes dans le cadre de la reforme, ayant donc des impacts differents sur l'inegalite sociale. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Geography and Planning, State University of New York, USA (2)Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, USA Article note: Youqin Huang (yhuang@albany.edu), Department of Geography and Planning, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA and Leiwen Jiang (Leiwen_Jiang@Brown.edu), Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, 111 Thayer Street, Providence, RI 12912-1970, USA.