LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION AND SPATIAL INEQUALITY IN CHINESE CITIES: THE ROLE OF RESIDENTIAL INCOME SORTING AND LAND-USE CONDITIONS

Abstract

Spatial inequality refers to unequal access to local public services between high- and low-income households in relation to their residential locations. We examine two hypotheses regarding the role of income sorting and land-use conditions in shaping spatial inequality in Chinese cities, where residents have little direct influence on local public service provision. First, in the presence of resource indivisibility, travel cost, and location-based rationing, scarcity of public-service resources in a city makes access to public services more uneven across neighborhoods, thus exacerbating income sorting and spatial inequality in the city. Second, the exacerbating effect of resource scarcity is mitigated by land-use conditions that limit income sorting. Estimates of willingness to pay by households of different income levels for public-service resources across cities corroborate both the exacerbating effect of resource scarcity and the mitigating effect of inclusive land-use conditions.