Effect of hometown housing investment on the homeownership of rural migrants in urban destinations: Evidence from China

摘要

The relationship between transnational housing investment and homeownership status in destinations has received considerable attention. However, the direct causal link between both activities remains scant. This study introduces a new conceptual and empirical framework, quasi-transnationalism and integration nexus, to discuss the causal effects of hometown housing investment on the homeownership of rural migrants in urban destinations. The research also applies a national representative data in China, the National Migrants Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey (NMPDMS), to explore such causal effect. The results show that hometown housing investment has a significantly negative effect on homeownership in urban destinations, whereas the substitution effect of hometown housing investment exceeds the complementary. The conclusions are consistent when IV-LPM regression is applied to correct the potential endogeneity of migrants' hometown housing investment. There are some notable differentials across life cycle groups and origin-destination groups, those are, hometown housing investment produces a larger negative effect for the old generation than the new generation, while it also plays a more important role for migrants who moved within the same regions, but the effect on the migrants from Central and Western China to East China is the weakest among the four origin-destination groups. The possible mechanism is that hometown housing investment influences the housing tenure choice through affecting the return migration plan and housing purchase intent in urban destinations.