Why Big Cities Don't Improve The Happiness Of Migrants

This article mainly seeks to explore the impact of cities on the happiness of floating population and its mechanism under the dual structure of urban and rural areas.First,this article used 2014 China Labor-force Dynamic Survey(CLDS)data to find that the economic satisfaction of the migrant population is high,and there is not much difference with the local residents,but their life satisfaction and individual satisfaction are lower.Further,we uses the2014-2016 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS)data to compose mixed cross-section data.It is found that as the size of the city increases,the number of separated couples increases and the separation rate of mobile couples in the city increases.Therefore,we use Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS)data from 2010,2011,2013,and 2015 to construct mixed cross-section data,and try to test the relationship between spouse separation and individual subjective well-being.The results show that spouse separation significantly reduces residents' happiness.When using12-16-year-old children as instrumental variables,12-16-year-old children significantly increase the probability of separation.It can be seen that the education problem of 12-16-year-old children is an important mechanism that affects the separation of floating population couples and their subjective well-being.Finally,this paper attempts to measure the cost of separation of husband and wife by the amount of remittance.In 2018,the floating population in China reached240 million,and the amount of remittance from married migrant workers to their hometown each year exceeded 807 billion 300 million,Reducing the separation of husband and wife will increase the couple's income by about 2 billion yuan,and reduce the remittance from their hometown by about 400 million yuan each year.It can be seen that the benefits of reducing the separation of husband and wife will be very considerable.The policy implication of this paper is that in the process of urbanization,the government should actively promote the process of the citizenization of the floating population,so that the floating population,especially the migrant workers can enjoy the same basic public services as the local residents,such as medical care,education,social security,etc.