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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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 13; no. 12; p. 6872
Main Authors Kim, Moon Joon, Xie, Xiaolin, Zhang, Xiaochen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 17.06.2021
Subjects
Air pollution
Air quality
Costs
Economic reform
Education
Entrance examinations
Environmental health
Environmental quality
Estimates
Households
Internal migration
Megacities
Migrants
Migration
Military personnel
Opportunity costs
Pollution surveys
Population density
Population relocation
Registration
Relocation
Rural areas
Secondary schools
Sustainability
Urban areas
China
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Summary: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.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13126872