Loss of Happiness for Land-Expropriated, Urbanised Residents: A Comparison Based on Multiple Groups

Abstract

Are land-expropriated, urbanised residents living happily? This question is not only related to the quality of urbanisation but also has important reference for evaluating the reform of the land acquisition system. On the basis of the Chinese General Social Survey data in 2017 and 2018, the HeckProbit model, the ordered probit model and the mediating effect model were used to study the happiness and underlying mechanism of land-expropriated, urbanised residents. The results showed that the older the farmers are, the lower the probability of obtaining urban hukou through land acquisition, and women will be more likely to achieve household registration through land requisition. Education and party status have significant inhibitory effects on hukou conversion through land acquisition. A comparison among multiple groups indicated that the happiness level of each group is ranked as follows: residents who attained urban hukou through education and job recruitment > urban native residents > land-expropriated, urbanised residents > farmers; however, the happiness level of the latter two groups has no significant difference. The propensity score matching method was further used to reduce the endogeneity due to selection bias, and the results were still robust. The lower self-assessment of socioeconomic status indirectly caused the loss of happiness of land-expropriated, urbanised residents. However, the high living expectation ‘suppressed’ the negative effect of land acquisition on happiness to some extent.