Housing Differentiation In Shanghai From The Perspective Of Geographical Differences

Housing plays a pivotal role in securing a better quality of life for individuals and become entrenched in a wider vision of socioeconomic inclusion.‘To ensure that the general public have a place to live' has been proposed as the goal of housing development in the new stage in China.Under this background,it is of great significance to understand the internal mechanism of housing differentiation and inequality.While most of the existing housing studies focus on the impact of individual life course events and parental housing support on the access to home ownership,there is still a lack of research on whether and how the geographical differences affect individual's housing outcome.According to the theory of spatial opportunity structure,the resources and opportunities provided by the places where individuals grow up affect their long-term social achievements.In China,due to the difficulty of changing hukou location,the differences in geographical conditions and the uneven geographical distribution of socioeconomic resources can be transformed into structural differences among individuals,which will affect their ability to buy a home in the urban housing market.Therefore,this paper,from the perspective of geographical differences,aims to investigate the impact of individual's place of origin on the access to home ownership in urban China and the internal mechanism.Using the survey data of Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey in Shanghai in 2013,this study traces back to the individual's place of origin according to the hukou location and the type of 14-year-old main residence.The place of origin is operationalized from two dimensions of administrative level and development level.Then,contingency table analysis,chi square test,logistic model regression and generalized structural equation modelling,etc.are employed to examine whether and how place of origin affects the housing differentiation among residents in urban China.The main conclusions are as follows:Individuals' socioeconomic attributes and the original family background vary according to different places of origin.Individuals from towns and rural areas are obviously at a disadvantage in terms of education,CCP membership,employer type,occupation status and annual family income;the higher the development level of place of origin,the more likely the individuals have a better socioeconomic status;compared to the development level of place of origin,the differences between different administrative levels are more obvious in the home ownership and socioeconomic attributes of parents,especially in parents' home ownership.After controlling individuals' socioeconomic attributes and the original family background,the administrative level and development level of place of origin have a significant and robust impact on making transition into home ownership in urban housing market,which show the characteristics of hierarchical differences.The individuals from Shanghai has obvious advantages in the urban housing market,followed by the individuals from the provincial capital cities and other regions with relatively high development level,while the individuals from towns and rural areas and places with low development level are the most disadvantaged and have less opportunity to buy a home in urban China.Individuals' places of origin can also affect the access to home ownership in urban China indirectly.On the one hand,the influence of intergenerational housing support provided by parents on individuals' home ownership is significantly moderated by the place of origin.On the other hand,the administrative level and development level of place of origin exert a significant indirect impact on the access to home ownership through the individuals' socioeconomic attributes,mainly through the individuals' educational attainment.Consistent with the existing housing studies,after controlling the relevant variables,the demography characteristics,including age and marital,socioeconomic attributes,including educational attainment and annual family income,and the original family background,including parents' home ownership and educational attainment can all influence their housing outcomes.In conclusion,this study analyzes the relationship between the place of origin and the housing differentiation in urban China from the perspective of geographical differences,which goes beyond the dual differentiation of hukou type(agricultural and non-agricultural)and hukou location(local and non-local)under the hukou system,and takes the diversity of urban internal population and the disparity of housing opportunity among migrants into consideration.It not only makes up for the neglect of geographical differences in the traditional housing study framework and provides new evidence to understand the relationship between geographical inequality and housing inequality,but also provides theoretical reference for the formulation of more reasonable urban housing policies and the reduction of regional development differences.