Housing inequality in urban China: the heritage of socialist institutional arrangements

Changchun Fang,John Iceland

doi:10.1186/s40711-018-0082-9

Changchun Fang, John Iceland

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40711-018-0082-9

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Abstract

With the development of the market economy in China, does the effect of the original socialist institutional arrangements on social inequality fade? We examine this issue by considering the effect of people’s positions in the work unit system and their socioeconomic status on patterns of housing inequality in urban China. Using individual-level data from the 2007 Household Survey on the Housing Conditions of Urban Residents in Nanjing, China, we find that although people’s socioeconomic status (measured by household income and householder’s education) has become very important in shaping people’s housing outcomes in urban China, housing inequality is also determined to some extent by their position in the work unit system—such as being employed in various units within the state sector—before and during the housing reform process. The pattern of housing inequality in urban China indicates that the impact of socialist institutional arrangements on social inequality can still be found in market transition societies even years after the market transition has occurred.

Highlights

In socialist societies, social inequality is structured in large part by government-managed redistributive mechanisms (Szelenyi 1978)
The private sector has expanded dramatically. These trends lead us to ask the following two questions that guide our analysis: do socialist institutional arrangements, in the form of a household’s work unit, still affect the kind of housing to which people have access? And, given the growth of the market system and the private sector, does socioeconomic status have an important effect on housing outcomes today? To gain insight into this issue, we examine the effect of these two factors—a household’s position in the socialist system and its socioeconomic status—on patterns of housing inequality in urban China
This high rate of homeownership is indicative of the fact that housing market reforms had largely been implemented by 2007. Another noteworthy phenomenon shown in the table is that 50.5% of homeowners obtained their housing through the housing reforms, and another 10.2% of them own middle- and low-price commercial housing

Summary

Introduction

Social inequality is structured in large part by government-managed redistributive mechanisms (Szelenyi 1978). Others have argued that former institutional arrangements, including the work unit system in market transition countries, have had a lasting effect on the nature and contours of inequality (Bian and Logan 1996; Lin 1995; Oi 1992; Parish and Michelson 1996; Rona-Tas 1994; Walder 1995). Most of these studies were conducted in the 1990s, and since the start of the twenty-first century, the situation of China has changed. A new analysis is much needed, given the likely long-term effect of these far-reaching reforms; and (3) we focus on more housing outcomes (tenure, type of housing, and quality of housing) than most previous studies

Literature review and research hypotheses

Results

Conclusion and discussion