Chinese Urban Household Research Articles

More than opportunistic victims: the multiple profiles of Chinese urban nail households

This research describes the initiation, bargaining and outcome stages of conflict that occur for nail households who resist housing demolition and relocation in urban China. Across the three stages...

Home value misestimation and household behavior: Evidence from China

Households often make errors when self-assessing their housing wealth. By using the Chinese Households Finance Survey, we show that Chinese urban households systematically overestimate their home value. This bias is significantly related to household consumption: a one standard deviation increase in the extent of estimation bias is associated with a 10% increase in household consumption. Our main results are robust against a variety of robustness checks, e.g., taking into account the expectations of future home price, using the interviewee's estimation as the instrumental variable for the household self-estimation, implementing the hedonic model on an external data source to assess real homevalue, etc.. Further, we show that overestimated households are more likely to take risk in financial market, and have a larger amount of immediate and conspicuous consumption. These findings have policy implications for the recent debate about property tax, indicating the unintended consequences of property tax through providing more precise information about home value.

Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of Chinese urban household consumption based on process life cycle assessment: Exploring the critical influencing factors

The household is an important sector for resource consumption and environmental impact. The consumption patterns and influencing factors of this sector must be identified to switch to a more sustainable stage of development. Process life cycle assessment (PLCA) can provide a bottom-up picture of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is suitable for the development of consumer-induced carbon management measures. In this study, PLCA was used to determine GHG emissions from Chinese urban households and to explore the primary influencing factors of GHG. The results indicated that, in 2014, the average global warming potential (GWP) per Chinese urban household was 5.36 t CO2-eq. Residential consumption contributed 33.5% to the total GWP, followed by food and household facilities consumption. Scenario analysis indicated that changing the power grid, extending the lifespan of buildings, and reducing vehicle ownership could have significant effects on Chinese urban household GWP impact. Green consumption patterns were also determined, with electricity savings, reduction in the frequency of automobile use, and prolonging the lifetime of household facilities all decreasing the GWP of household consumption.

Evolution of Chinese urban household's water footprint

In addition to quantity-induced water scarcity, China at present faces quality-induced water scarcity under the background of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Urban household consumption has significantly contributed to water consumption and pollutant emission. In this study, we use water footprint (WF), which includes water quantity and water quality (represented by blue WF and grey WF, respectively) to calculate the impact of urban household consumption on water resources. Multiple data sources, including the Water Resources Bulletin, China Environmental Statistical Yearbook, China Statistics Yearbook, and First Pollution Sources Census, among others, are considered. The results indicate that the per capita WF of urban household consumption has decreased from 1992 to 2012 in China mainly because of technological innovations. Food consumption contributes the most to the total WF of Chinese urban households. In terms of different income groups, a higher income likely leads to a larger WF. However, reducing the WF intensity may be insufficient for curbing the future increase in WFs. Food-related WF has already shown an increase since 2007 mainly because of the diet transition to animal-based food with larger WF. Thus, apart from technological innovations, measures need to be adopted to curb the consumption of goods with relatively larger WF and subsequently decrease the WF of Chinese urban households.

Social networks and informal financial inclusion in China

Using the 2011 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) database, we explore the heterogeneous impacts of social networks on informal financial inclusion for Chinese urban and rural households. We find that social networks significantly increase the probability of households’ participation in the informal financial market, augment the size of informal financial transaction, and raise the ratio of informal lending over the total household assets. We also identify the mechanisms through which the social networks affect households’ participation in the informal financial market. By reducing information cost, perceived risk and precautionary saving, social networks play a larger role for urban households than rural households. Notably, the effects of social networks on informal finance are strengthened with the development of formal financial market.

Chinese residential electricity consumption: Estimation and forecast using micro-data

Based on econometric estimation using data from the Chinese Urban Household Survey, we develop a preferred forecast range of 85–143 percent growth in residential per capita electricity demand over 2009–2025. Our analysis suggests that per capita income growth drives a 43% increase, with the remainder due to an unexplained time trend. Roughly one-third of the income-driven demand comes from increases in the stock of specific major appliances, particularly AC units. The other two-thirds comes from non-specific sources of income-driven growth and is based on an estimated income elasticity that falls from 0.28 to 0.11 as income rises. While the stock of refrigerators is not projected to increase, we find that they contribute nearly 20 percent of household electricity demand. Alternative plausible time trend assumptions are responsible for the wide range of 85–143 percent. Meanwhile we estimate a price elasticity of demand of −0.7. These estimates point to carbon pricing and appliance efficiency policies that could substantially reduce demand.

Direct rebound effect for urban household in China—an empirical study

Household sector has become one important target sector on which the Chinese government implements its energy-saving and emission reduction policies. Improving energy efficiency is the primary method adopted by the Chinese government for energy conservation. However, its real energy-saving effects would be affected greatly owing to energy rebound effects. In this paper, we set up a Linear Approximation of the Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) model to estimate the direct rebound effect for urban households in China, and real energy conservation effect of improving energy efficiency is also obtained. The assessment of the rebound has a lot of uncertainty, and therefore, exact figures are hard to determine. The results show that energy rebound for Chinese urban household is approximately 66%. In this regard, the Chinese government could not accomplish the energy conservation target through improving energy efficiency only. Policy supplements like energy pricing reform are also needed.

Have Chinese water pricing reforms reduced urban residential water demand?

AbstractChina continues to deal with severe levels of water scarcity and water pollution. To help address this situation, the Chinese central government initiated urban water pricing reforms in 2002 that emphasized the adoption of increasing block rate (IBR) price structures in place of existing uniform rate structures. By combining urban water use records with microlevel data from the Chinese Urban Household Survey, this research investigates the effectiveness of this national policy reform. Specifically, we compare household water consumption in 28 cities that adopted IBR pricing structures during 2002–2009, with that of 110 cities that had not yet done so. Based on difference‐in‐differences models, our results show that the policy reform reduced annual residential water demand by 3–4% in the short run and 5% in the longer run. These relatively modest reductions are consistent with the generous nature of the IBR pricing structures that Chinese cities have typically chosen to implement. Our results imply that more efforts are needed to address China's persistent urban water scarcity challenges.

A survey on energy consumption and energy usage behavior of households and residential building in urban China

Building performance, equipment efficiency, and occupant behavior play important roles in China urban residential building energy conservation. An online survey was conducted in 2015 to study the urban residential energy and usage behavior. A total of 4964 Chinese urban households participated in the survey, answering questions about their family composition, buildings, energy use and conservation behaviors, and reactions to specific energy conservation policies. The results suggest that the general trend in Chinese urban households is larger unit sizes (on average, 109m2 per household) and smaller families. The average electricity consumption of urban residential buildings is 1690kWh per year per household in 2015 and it continues to grow as home electronics become more widespread and the demand for higher quality of life increases. China urban residential buildings energy use has the following characteristics: steady growth in size and energy consumption of the buildings associated with rapid urbanization, decentralized and individual equipment with diversified energy usage behavior, and relatively low energy consumption level compared to other countries. In addition to the current energy efficiency programs, China should focus on energy consumption and intensities target of building sector, and the key for urban residential building energy efficiency is to retain traditional behaviors and lifestyles, as well as promoting outcome-based energy conservation policies and technology systems to improve indoor environment and comfort.

Driving Forces of Direct Carbon Emission From Urban and Rural Household Energy Consumption in China

In China, economic growth stimulates urban expansion and rural household income and consumption expenditure. The study calculates direct carbon emission from the energy consumption of Chinese urban and rural household and applies LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) decomposition model to identify the driving forces that influence variations in residential direct carbon emission. The result shows that direct carbon emission of urban residents is always higher than that of rural and there is still a significant gap between them. Income lever effect and energy structure effect present positive impact on both urban and rural residential emission, while the emission intensity effect plays a negative role. In addition, population size plays positive effect on urban residential direct carbon emission, while negative role on rural. The study concludes with the policy implications

A Bite of China: Food consumption and carbon emission from 1992 to 2007

In conjunction with the rapid rise in household food expenditures per capita, China's food consumption has increased greatly. At the same time, dietary patterns have changed dramatically, as between 1992 and 2007 China underwent a transition to a more animal-based westernized diet. This rise in food consumption and shift in dietary structure may contribute substantially to climate change. In this paper, an input-output model is used to explore the food-related carbon emissions of Chinese urban households in 1992 and 2007. The results indicate that the physical volume of and economic expenditures on food consumption have increased by 20.7% and 35.9%, respectively. However, food-related carbon emissions per capita in 2007 had decreased nearly 21% compared to emissions in 1992. Based on parametric estimates of environmental Engel Curves and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, the variation in household income may lead to a hypothetical carbon emissions increase of 1.694 tons. However, the improvement in energy use efficiency had offset the impact from income growth and dietary transition and led to the drop in China's food-related carbon emissions from 1992 to 2007.

The role of public information in increasing homebuyers' willingness-to-pay for green housing: Evidence from Beijing

To explain the weak demand for green housing in Chinese cities, researchers point to the lack of reliable and accurate information to convince owners to invest, yet there is little concrete evidence that such information would in fact promote homebuyers' investment in green housing. We implement an information experiment in Beijing. We select two pairs of residential complexes – each pair has two complexes located in the same housing submarket, and one is green while the other is not. We ask the respondents' willingness to buy a new green housing unit, and, if yes, the price premium they are willing to pay. Then we show them an information card that documents that green apartments outperform their non-green counterparts in terms of several indoor environmental indicators, and then ask them the same two questions. We find that dwellers living in green complexes present a significantly higher initial willingness-to-pay for greenness, but this difference narrows significantly after our information treatment, as the non-green-complex dwellers' willingness-to-pay for greenness increases dramatically. This inspiring result suggests that Chinese urban households will be encouraged to purchase green housing if they are provided more reliable and concrete information.

From income and housing wealth inequalities to emissions inequality: carbon emissions of households in China

The emerging notion of emissions inequality expands the idea of sustainability by incorporating economic opportunity as well as social needs and rights into environmental costs and benefits. In China, increasing inequality among urban households in terms of both income and housing wealth establishes a pattern of social stratification. An understanding of the association of social and environmental inequality is thus critical for urban sustainability. Based on the Chinese urban household survey from 2002 to 2009, this article employs the lifestyle approach to calculate and analyse the inequality of households by direct and indirect carbon emissions. The correlations among carbon emission inequality with income and housing wealth inequality are estimated with a Heckman procedure. We find that not only income distribution but also housing wealth distributionis an important consideration in understanding environmental inequality in China.

Household Energy Demand in Urban China: Accounting for Regional Prices and Rapid Income Change

Understanding the rapidly rising demand for energy in China is essential to efforts to reduce the country’s energy use and environmental damage. In response to rising incomes and changing prices and demographics, household use of various fuels, electricity and gasoline has changed dramatically in China. In this paper, we estimate both income and price elasticities for various energy types using Chinese urban household micro-data collected by National bureau of Statistics, by applying a two-stage budgeting AIDS model. We find that total energy is price and income inelastic for all income groups after accounting for demographic and regional effects. Our estimated electricity price elasticity ranges from -0.49 to -0.57, gas price elasticity ranges from -0.46 to -0.94, and gasoline price elasticity ranges from -0.85 to -0.94. Income elasticity for various energy types range from 0.57 to 0.94. Demand for coal is most price and income elastic among the poor, whereas gasoline demand is elastic for the rich.

Factors affecting Chinese urban household energy consumption and spatial differences based on static panel data modelling for eight regions

Factors affecting Chinese urban household energy consumption and spatial differences based on static panel data modelling for eight regions

Distributional incidence of green electricity price subsidies in China

Distributional incidences are fundamental to environmental and energy policies, a condition that has led to controversies on the equity of environmental and energy policy. Using data from China's Urban Household Income and Expenditure Survey data from 2007, this study quantified the distributional effects of the green electricity price subsidy policy among Chinese urban household and compared its effects by using lifetime income and annual income to classify households, respectively. The results show that total electricity subsidies are mainly driven by indirect electricity subsidies. By using lifetime income to classify households, subsidies to households in the poorest two groups accounted for less than 10.2% of the total subsidies, whereas money distributed to households in the top two deciles reached 35.4%. The comparison using annual income to group households also demonstrated the similar impact of the green electricity price subsidy policy. China’s future market reforms should allow electricity prices to reflect pollution abatement costs. Additionally, a multi-step block electricity price schedule can reduce the regressivity of the policy.

Income inequality and access to housing: Evidence from China

Economic theory suggests that income inequality predicts housing price and housing affordability for low-income households. Employing Chinese urban household survey data, this paper examines empirically the relationship between income inequality and access to housing for urban low-income households. The empirical results demonstrate that higher income inequality within cities is significantly related to a higher housing cost burden, a smaller per capita living space, and lower housing quality for low-income households. Further studies demonstrate that the negative impacts of income inequality could be moderated by product differentiation in housing markets, as a higher degree of differentiation in the size of housing units corresponds to a smaller effect of income inequality on housing affordability.

Chinese Urban Households’ Security Market Participation: Does Investment Knowledge and Having a Long-Term Plan Help?

Investment in the securities markets is vital to households’ wealth accumulation and financial security. Using data from the 2008 Survey of Chinese Consumer Finance and Investor Education, we found that self-assessed investment knowledge and having a long-term financial plan were positively associated with Chinese households’ participation in the securities markets. The findings provide insight into the long-term financial security of Chinese households. Given the growing middle class and the rapid development of the financial markets in China, the Chinese financial planning industry is likely to grow substantially in the coming years.

Engel curves and price elasticity in urban Chinese Households

On the basis of local concavity assumptions, Exact Affine Stone Index implicit Marshallian demand system is adopted to analyze Engel Curves and price elasticity for Chinese urban household. Our results show that a demand system rank can be polynomials or splines of any order which support the conclusion of Lewbel and Pendakur (2009). Engel Curves are affected by gender and education of householder, the number of minor children and adults. Budget shares of food, clothing and transportation–communication decrease, and other budget shares increase from 1995 to 2007. There are different influences between all categories of price elasticities, most notably dwelling price. In addition, the quickly rising price and slow growth spending hamper improvement of welfare from 2002 to 2012.

Impact of Status Inconsistency on Consumption Patterns in Urban China

By analyzing the survey data of Chinese urban household in S city from 1998 to 2009, this paper is mainly focused on the influence of status inconsistency on consumption patterns. The study found that status inconsistency has some influence on material consumption and cultural consumption. High-return families, whose education level is higher than its income level, had less material consumption from 1988 to 1993, but they increased material consumption since 1994. Low-return homes had a higher cultural consumption during 1988-1993, but high-return families have higher than that after 1994. Overall, from 1988 to 1993, high-return families’ material and cultural consumption were low; since 1994, they have a higher material and cultural consumption.