Multi-dimensional Housing Inequality Index: The Provincial Evidence from China

Since the reform of the housing system in 1998, China’s housing distribution system has changed from welfare- to a market-based distribution, forming a unique phenomenon of housing inequality. Existing research on housing inequality mainly focuses on housing inequality in a single dimension and a single year, in which the importance of housing welfare based on household registration (hukou) has been ignored. This study examined China's housing inequality from three dimensions: housing living condition, housing wealth, and housing welfare based on hukou. Based on the data from the four-times China household finance survey and the generalized entropy measurement model, this study investigated the dynamic trends of China's housing inequality and showed that the degree of China's housing inequality has an overall upward trend from 2011 to 2017. Moreover, this research also calculated the provincial housing inequality and conducted the regression analysis to investigate the factors that affect housing inequality in each province. It was found that economic development and population migration affects provincial housing inequality significantly. Research confirms that housing inequality in China is increasing, which needs the central government to promote housing reform and alleviate the contradiction of housing interests.