Employers as landlords for rural-to-urban migrants in Chinese cities

Abstract

In Chinese cities, employer-provided housing has played an important part in accommodating low-income, rural-to-urban migrants. Employer housing is often used to study other problems such as management style or worker psychology. In this paper we intend to examine employer-provided housing for its own sake. We use two surveys in the cities of Taiyuan and Tianjin in China to understand the reasons why Chinese employers want to provide housing for employees, the conditions of this type of housing and whether workers are satisfied with it. In doing so, we may identify areas that suffer from serious market failure and will discuss possible solutions to the problems.