Residential Segregation And HUKOU Identities In China's Urbanization: Evidence From Shanghai

In the rapid progress of China's urbanization, the residential segregation between people with and without local HUKOU identity is worthy of much attention, especially in metropolitan cities which execute strict control of HUKOU system. This paper discovers some emerging residential segregation phenomenon related to HUKOU identity, based on a micro-data of Shanghai residents'survey. We also find that families without HUKOU identity are living in worse conditions, and people's subjective valuations for security, trust, health and children's growing environment are lower in residential quarters with higher proportion of "non-HUKOU" families. Relying on the previous findings, we further emphasizes on one question:Is the segregation really about HUKOU itself, or just concerning some other variables which is relative to the HUKOU identity and also affect families' location choice? The answer is the first one. And distinguished with foreign facts, China's residential segregation problem has more to do with the unequal institutions.