Sorrow under prosperity: how downtown residence influences the welfare of disabled people in China

ABSTRACT

While the welfare divergence between rural and urban disabled residents in China has attracted great scholarly attention, little to no research has examined the relevant disparities within the city. Due to the administrative-led resource allocation model in China, disabled individuals residing in the urban centre are expected to have a greater advantage in their daily lives compared to their counterparts in the suburbs. We use Tianjin, a Chinese municipality, as an example to explore the impact of disabled individuals’ downtown residence on their employment, education, marriage, and access to public services. Our spatial regression discontinuity estimates reveal that compared to suburban disabled residents, downtown residents have easier access to education but face difficulties in employment and marriage. A follow-up survey indicates that disabled residents in downtown areas face employment and marriage disadvantages due to implicit exclusion of low-skilled groups and high marriage burdens in urban centres. This paper sheds light on the welfare of disabled groups in cities and the latent impact of urban development on social minorities.

KEYWORDS:

• The disabled
• China
• welfare divergence
• employment
• marriage
• the spatial regression discontinuity design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data available statement

Data relevant to this paper will be made available upon reasonable requests.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2024.2372136

Notes

1. The six districts are Heping District (和平区), Hexi District (河西区), Nankai District (南开区), Hedong District (河东区), Hebei District (河北区), Hongqiao District (红桥区).

2. Data Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019–07/25/c_1124797039.htm

3. See, for example, Xinhua News, March 2, 2022. ‘Protection of disabled people’s rights integrated in Chinese laws, development strategies: officials’ https://english.news.cn/20220303/5cc6dcc0ee604462af72606a2daf3a01/c.html

4. Souhu. March 15, 2019. ‘Bridging the gap in public services and promoting the high-quality development of metropolitan areas’ https://www.sohu.com/a/299156520_566017

5. Ibid.

6. Sina News. April 13, 2023. ‘Lack of resources for special education’ https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2023-04-13/doc-imyqfnhh6818741.shtml

7. Word Bank. ‘Disability and the right to education for all’ https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/disability-and-right-education-all

8. The Disabled Persons’ Federation is a public institution that participates in the administration of civil servants and is an organization that represents and addresses disabled people’s issues in China.

9. In the subsequent section, we employ alternative bandwidths, polynomials, and kernels to check the robustness of the main results.

10. Detailed information about the interview and online survey is presented in Figure A2 and Tables A5 of the Supplementary Material.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mengbing Du

Mengbing Du, A lecturer (assistant professor) at School of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, China. Her research areas encompass public service and infrastructure, climate change policy and governance, and public policy analysis. She has made notable contributions to these fields, with her work being published in journals such as Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Land Use Policy, Habitat International, Sustainable Production and Consumption, and Environmental Impact Assessment Review.

Shouzhi Xia

Shouzhi Xia A lecturer (assistant professor) at School of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, China. His research focuses on media and politics, public opinion, and Chinese politics. His work has been published in journals such as Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, and The China Quarterly.

Ning Qiu

Ning Qiu, An associate research fellow at School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shandong Jianzhu University. Her research interests are social deprivation, urban and rural public services, and health geography, with a specific emphasis on China’s disabled population. She particularly focuses on examining the influence of accessibility, employment, and marital status on this demographic. Her academic contributions have been recognized through publications in journals such as Habitat International, SSM-Population Health, and Frontiers in public health.