Housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s

This paper discusses housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s, using original household surveys. Focuses are on the distributive implications of the privatization of public-owned housing and the wave of rural-urban migration. Estimates of the imputed rent function for owned housing purchased at discount prices indicates that meritocracy and political credentialism work differently as determinants of housing inequality. The paper confirms that there has been a large disparity in housing conditions between urban and migrant households, and that a new type of housing poverty has been emerging among migrant households.