-Life-satisfaction-in-Urban-China-Components-and-d

LifeSatisfactioninUrbanChina:ComponentsandDeterminantsSIMONAPPLETONandLINASONG*NottinghamUniversity,Nottingham,UnitedKingdomSummary.—SurveydatafromurbanChinain2002showlevelsoflifesatisfactiontohavebeenlow,butnotexceptionallyso,byinternationalcomparison.Manyofthedeterminantsoflifesat-isfactioninurbanChinaappearcomparabletothoseforpeopleinothercountries.Theseinclude,interalia,unemployment,income,marriage,sex,health,andage.CommunistPartymembershipandpoliticalparticipationraisedlifesatisfaction.Peopleappearedfairlysatisfiedwitheconomicgrowthandlowinflation,andthiscontributedtotheiroveralllifesatisfaction.Therewasdissatis-factionoverpollution,butthis—likejobinsecurity—doesnotappeartohaveimpactedonlifesat-isfaction.2008ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.Keywords—lifesatisfaction,happiness,economicgrowth,unemployment,China1.INTRODUCTIONThereisnowalargeliteratureonlifesatisfac-tion,althoughmoststudieshavefocussedondevelopedcountries.Oneofthestrikingfea-turesofthisliteratureisthateconomicgrowthinrichcountriesoverthelast50orsoyears,doesnotappeartohaveledtocommensurateimprovementsintheirhappiness.Contempo-raryChinaisaninterestingcasetostudylifesat-isfaction,sinceithasexperiencedrapidandsustainedeconomicgrowthfornearlythreedec-ades.Indeed,astheChinesegovernmenthasdefactoabandonedmuchoftheMarxistideologythatunderpinneditsrule,itsauthorityhasincreasinglybeenseentorestonitsabilitytocontinuetodelivereconomicgrowth.However,theinternationalliteratureonlifesatisfactioncautionsagainstsimplyassumingfasteconomicgrowthwillledtoahappyandcontentpopula-tion.Inthispaper,wefocusonurbanChina,usingsurveydataonlifesatisfactionin2002.AlthoughChina’srapidgrowthisasourceofenvyformuchofthedevelopingworld,withinthecountrythereisconcernoveravarietyofsourcesofdiscontent.Whileurbanresidentshavesharedinthecountry’seconomicgrowth,theyhavealsobeensubjecttoreformsthathaveimpactednegativelyonsome.Massretrench-mentinstate-ownedenterpriseshasincreasedunemployment.Muchstate-orwork-unitpro-videdwelfarehasbeenwithdrawn—employeesinthestatesectorfeelinsecureabouttheirfu-tureintermsofpensions,medicalinsurance,andhousingsubsidies(Appleton,Knight,Song,&Xia,2004;Saunders&Shang,2001).Incomeinequalityrosesharplyduringtheinitialreformperiod(Knight&Song,2003).Politicalreformhasbeenslowincomparisontoeconomicre-formandthereareconcernsthatthismayleadtodiscontent.Shornofitsideologicalroots,theChineseCommunistPartyfacesachallengetoitslegitimacy,aggravatedbyfrequentreportsofcorruptionamongitsmembers.Inthiscontext,theanalysisoflifesatisfactionincontemporaryurbanChinaprovidesaninterestingadditiontothegrowingliteratureonhappiness(Frey&Stutzer,2002;Layard,2005).TheliteratureonlifesatisfactioninChi-naisratherthin.Ji,Xu,andRich(2002)*TheauthorsaregratefultotheCCKFoundationforfundingtheprojectandtheFordFoundationforsup-portingthedatacollection.BaiNanshengwasagreathelpwiththedesignoftheprojectandtheconductofthepilotsurvey.LiShiadministeredthedatacollection.Helpfulcommentswereprovidedbythreeanonymousreferees.Wearegratefultoallofthem.Finalrevisionaccepted:April14,2008.WorldDevelopmentVol.36,No.11,pp.2325–2340,20082008ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved0305-750X/$-seefrontmatterdoi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.04.009(CHIP)survey.Seventhousandindividualswererandomlysampledfrom71Chinesecitiesoutof12provincescoveringallgeographicre-gionsandadministrativelevelsofChina.Com-panionpiecesonlifesatisfactionforruralresidentsandrural–urbanmigrantsarepro-videdbyKnightetal.(2007)andKnightandGunatilaka(2007),respectively.However,itshouldbenotedthatonlytheurbansampleusedthispaperhadansweredquestionsfromanentiremoduledevotedtolifesatisfaction.GivenChina’ssizeandimportancetotheworldeconomy,itisinterestingtoseewhetherexist-ingfindingsfromstudiesofothercountries—mainlyrichWesternones—alsoapplytoChi-na.Moreover,dataonindividuallifesatisfactionprovideonelensforstudyingsocialdiscontentandpotentialpoliticalinstability.Socialdiscon-tentistypicallyseenintermsofitsobservedmanifestations—demonstrations,strikes,civildisorder,andcriminality.However,itshouldalsohavesomerelationtoindividuallifesatis-faction.Therelationbetweenthetwoseemsal-mostdefinitional:itishardtoenvisagesocialdiscontentarisingamongapopulationwhichallreportshighlifesatisfaction.Inthispaper,wefocusonthreeaspectsinparticular:theoverallleveloflifesatisfaction;thecomponentsoflifesatisfaction(whichareasofpeople’slivestheyareparticularlysatisfiedordissatisfiedwith);andthesocio-economicdeterminantsoflifesatisfaction.Allthreemayhavesomerele-vancetounderstandingsocialdiscontent.Forexample,ifpeopletendtoreporthighlevelsoflifesatisfaction,thenthisprovidessomeevi-dencethatsocialdiscontentisnotashighassometimesimagined.Similarly,ifpeoplereportb