Residential environment and subjective well-being in Beijing: A fine-grained spatial scale analysis using a bivariate response binomial multilevel model

Abstract

Existing literature has examined the determinants of subjective well-being in China from the social, economic and psychological perspectives. Very few studies explore the impacts of residential environment on subjective well-being. Drawing on a large scale questionnaire survey in Beijing, this paper investigates the role of residential environment by decomposing the variations of subjective well-being at fine-grained spatial scales, i.e. district and neighbourhood levels. A bivariate response binomial multilevel model is employed to assess the relative importance of geographical contexts and individual characteristics, in particular, the household registration (hukou) status, in influencing subjective well-being. The results show significant heterogeneities in subjective well-being among districts and neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood types are significantly correlated with subjective well-being, with residents in commercial housing neighbourhoods reporting higher levels of subjective well-being than those in work-unit and affordable housing neighbourhoods. However, the impacts of neighbourhood types are not uniformly experienced by people with different hukou status. Migrants tend to express lower levels of subjective well-being than local residents. Such disparities are more pronounced in urban villages compared with other neighbourhoods.