Migrant household homeownership outcomes in large Chinese cities - the sustained impact of hukou.

Homeownership by migrant households in large Chinese cities is increasingly evident and sometimes blamed for driving up local housing prices.Hukoureform grants localhukouto migrants in small cities while it allows large cities to set uphukouentry barriers to control migration. This paper explores whether migrant households’ micro-level characteristics and macro-level urban policies relating tohukoureform have any impact on their housing tenure choices. Using data from a 2009 survey of migrant households in six large cities, this study adopts logistic regression models to examine factors influencing labor migrant households’ tenure decisions. We find that household income and head of householdhukoutype, contribution to pension fund, and enrollment in health insurance all positively predict homeownership. Migrant households are more likely to be found in cities with larger population size. We argue that city entry barriers create new forms of institutionalhavesandhave-notsand new forms of inequality. The sustained impact of previoushukoutypes suggests inherited inequalities through intergenerational wealth transfer, which calls for targeted welfare policies to mediate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]