IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v51y2023ics1570677x23000667.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leave for where? The impact of air quality on migration: Evidence at the city-pair level in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Mingyue
  • Sun, Tianshi

Abstract

We comprehensively explore the question of “Leave for where?” by utilizing city-pair level data of China spanning from 2011 to 2017. Our investigation focuses on the impact of disparities in air quality between city pairs on migration. we find that a 1% increase in the difference air quality between inflow and outflow locations raises the number of people migrating from the outflow to the inflow location by approximately 0.07%. This finding is robust after overcoming possible endogeneity problems with average wind speed as an instrumental variable. In addition, we conducted a heterogeneity analysis in terms of intention to migrate and individual characteristics, finding that individuals who migrated for work and family are more sensitive to differences in air quality between city pairs, whereas those who moved for business are not sensitive to differences in air quality. Regarding individual characteristics, differences in air quality between city pairs have a greater impact on the migration decisions of low-educated, female, and younger migrants. Further, a mechanistic analysis by constructing cohort dummy variables reveals that poor air quality is more motivational than the desire for good air quality and the crowding-out effect of air pollution on migration is more pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Mingyue & Sun, Tianshi, 2023. "Leave for where? The impact of air quality on migration: Evidence at the city-pair level in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000667
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101285
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23000667
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101285?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air quality; Migration; City-pair;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000667. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.