Urbanization trends in China reveal a shift in migration patterns, with an increasing number of recent migrants leaving primate cities while secondary cities emerge as attractive destinations. Given China's aging population and intensifying intercity competition for migrants, understanding the factors associated with recent migrants' intentions to leave cities at various levels becomes increasingly important. While spatial equilibrium theory implies that migrants' leaving intentions are shaped by the balance of housing, employment, and amenities, these factors vary hierarchically across city levels. This study examines how these factors differentially shape recent migrants' leaving intentions across primate, secondary, and small cities. Through binary logistic regression of national survey data, we find that recent migrants in secondary cities exhibit lower leaving intentions compared to those in primate and small cities. Further interaction analyses reveal distinct patterns: in primate cities, medium-income migrants are most likely to consider leaving; in secondary cities, rental housing status and hometown residential land ownership more strongly increase leaving intentions compared to primate cities, while medical resource accessibility more significantly reduces leaving intentions compared to small cities. Drawing on spatial equilibrium theory, our analysis suggests that secondary cities appear to achieve an optimal balance: their greater homeownership opportunities serve as a compensatory factor for their lower incomes compared to primate cities, while their superior medical amenity accessibility compensates for their higher housing costs compared to small cities. This paper contributes theoretically by bridging factors in spatial equilibrium theory with the urban hierarchy dynamics proposed by differential urbanization theory. It also offers practical insights for tailoring migration retention policies across city levels and adapting to the transformation of urbanization stages.

Global metropolises, including first-tier Chinese cities, are confronting unprecedented challenges of talent exodus amid escalating housing costs, competitive job markets and deteriorating urban living conditions. Traditional migration theories fall short in explaining young talents' mobility decisions, as their high human capital drives them to prioritize multidimensional considerations beyond mere economic returns. This study develops a comprehensive theoretical framework integrating multiple aspects of prospect theory—reference dependence, loss aversion, endowment effects and risk attitudes—to investigate young talents' settlement intentions through logistic regression analysis of survey data from 1065 professionals across Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The research reveals that migration decisions are fundamentally shaped by asymmetric psychological evaluations: young talents demonstrate heightened sensitivity to potential losses in job prospects and housing affordability. Institutional and psychological endowments significantly enhance settlement intentions: homeownership, local hukou status and public sector employment increase staying probability, along with longer duration of residence and stronger place attachment. Notably, our findings reveal nuanced suppression effects of migration-specific risk attitude on one's general risk attitude: while first-tier cities attract individuals with higher general risk tolerance who are willing to embrace urban challenges, these individuals also tend to have higher migration-specific risk tolerance, which in turn reduces their long-term settlement intention. These insights not only advance behavioural economic understanding of talent mobility in urban areas, but also provide practical guidance for metropolitan governance. Our findings suggest that effective urban talent retention requires cities to strengthen institutional ties and guarantee stable career development rather than relying primarily on economic incentives. This approach ensures cities maintain the human capital essential for innovation and competitiveness in an era of increasing inter-urban competition.

In the context of skyrocketing house prices and fierce competition for talents between cities, this study explores the housing pathways of young talents and their future migration plans in Shenzhen, China. Using the housing pathways approach and Bourdieu’s theory of practice with three concepts, this study uncovers how structural factors and the often-overlooked agency factors together influence the formation of different housing pathways. Drawing on 18 semi-structured interviews with young talents, four different housing pathways were identified: staying at parents’ home, private renting to owning, talented renting, and progressive private renting. We found that the interaction of habitus and different forms of capital shapes different housing pathways. In addition, young talents following different housing pathways have various future migration plans. This paper sheds new light on the use of the housing pathways approach and Bourdieu’s theory of practice in providing a nuanced understanding of housing and migration behaviour.

The recent revival of the private rented sector in many regions highlights the importance of understanding the well-being of private renters. While there is a consensus that private renters are less satisfied with their life than homeowners, little attention has been given to examining the life satisfaction of private renters from different sub-sectors, nor has the underlying mechanism linking residential environment and life satisfaction been thoroughly investigated. The present paper aims to address these gaps by examining the life satisfaction of private renters from different sub-sectors in Shenzhen, China. We propose a model, based on Amérigo and Aragones’ (1997) theoretical framework, that links residential environment, social exclusion, and life satisfaction. The model fits well with the data collected from 619 renters. The results showed that only 38% of the respondent private renters were satisfied with their life. Furthermore, we found urban village renters were significantly less satisfied with their life compared with renters living in commercial housing and Long-term Rented Apartments. Path analysis results suggest that some objective aspects of the residential environment, renters’ perceived social exclusion, and their residential satisfaction could explain a substantial proportion of the variances in life satisfaction while the influence of demographic variables was found to be insignificant. Perceived equal citizenship rights, perceived discrimination, and perceived reasonable rent were shown to have significant effects on life satisfaction. The paper concludes with a discussion on policy implications aimed at enhancing the life satisfaction of private renters.

After being neglected since the establishment of the housing market in the 1990s, China has recently shown great enthusiasm for developing the housing rental market. It is essential to understand why people choose private renting as it enables us to better identify the demands of tenants and develop policies accordingly to promote private renting. However, at the micro-level, the determinants for people's renting intention have rarely been studied in the Chinese context. This paper aims to examine what specific underlying beliefs, as well as background factors, influence people's private renting intention in China's metropolises. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we designed questionnaires and collected personal data from 476 private renters living in Shenzhen. We found people had generally favorable attitudes, supportive subjective norms, and high perceived behavioral control of private renting in Shenzhen. Results from a path analysis suggest that people's renting intention was most influenced by their attitudes toward renting, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. In addition, marital status and some underlying behavioral, normative, and control beliefs were also found to have significant influences on renting intention. Based on our findings, some recommendations were proposed to promote private renting, such as advertising the advantages of renting to the public, enhancing the sense of belonging of renters, and expanding the rental housing supply.

In recent years, China has witnessed fierce competition for talents among cities. There is evidence that China's first-tier cities are losing their appeal for young talents due to the soaring housing prices and high living costs in first-tier cities, as well as the catch-up of next-tier cities. Therefore, uncovering what factors drive young talents to develop in first-tier cities is important for policymakers to maintain and enhance the attractiveness of first-tier cities. Most previous research on talent migration has focused on demographic and socioeconomic factors, while little research has examined the influence of psychological factors. By adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this paper aims to explore what beliefs and background factors influence university students' intention to develop in first-tier cities after graduation. Using the data we collected from 1242 university students across China, we found that two-thirds of university students have the intention to develop in a first-tier city after graduation. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results show that students' migration intentions were most influenced by their attitudes, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Specifically, beliefs such as realizing future dreams, better job opportunities, and higher wages shape students' positive attitudes towards developing in first-tier cities. The supports from family, friends, teachers, and classmates contribute to positive subjective norms of developing in first-tier cities. In contrast, perceptions of high housing prices, high living costs, and family ties discourage students from developing in first-tier cities. Furthermore, being male, being a non-only child, studying in first-tier cities, and attending higher-ranking universities have positive influences on migration intention through the mediating effects of the TPB constructs. Policy implications were discussed to help first-tier cities attract graduates.

In recent years, Chinese housing policies have been shifting from encouraging homeownership toward developing the private rented sector, especially in the superstar cities. Nevertheless, what are the target groups and characteristics of private rental housing in Chinese superstar cities, and whether the private rental housing is capable of meeting private tenants' housing needs remain unclear. This paper attempts to bridge this gap from the tenant perspective by examining the determinants of private tenants' residential satisfaction. We argue that residential satisfaction should be examined within different submarkets. By adopting the Structure of Housing Provision thesis, we identified three main sub-sectors in China's superstar cities, i.e. urban village housing, commercial rented housing, and Long-term Rented Apartment (LTRA). Based on a questionnaire survey in Shenzhen, we examined the characteristics of the three subsectors and tenants living in each sub-sector. Furthermore, we evaluated whether the residential satisfaction levels varied significantly in different sub-sectors and the determinants of residential satisfaction in each sub-sector. The results of an ANOVA showed that tenants living in commercial rented housing and LTRAs were more satisfied than those living in urban village housing. The regression results showed that the determinants of residential satisfaction vary considerably among different sub-sectors. The results of this paper can be useful not only for the landlords to improve tenants' residential satisfaction but also for policy-makers engaged in private rental market development and urban renewal.

Research courses are part of many higher education curricula. However, students’ attitudes towards statistics and research courses tend to be negative. One way to measure students’ attitude is with the Revised-Attitudes Towards Research scale (R-ATR). The current study examined: (1) the internal reliability of the R-ATR, (2) the attitude of Dutch second-year architecture students towards research courses, and (3) whether attitude is related to age and gender. It was found that the R-ATR has good internal reliability and that Dutch second-year architecture students’ attitude towards research courses is reasonably favorable. Students generally acknowledge the usefulness of research courses and do not feel anxious, but find them stressful and difficult to some extent and do not enjoy them. Further analyses showed three types of students: relaxed students, virtuous students and worried students, who each require a different approach to improving their attitude towards research courses. No relationship emerged between attitude and age or gender, but female students considered research courses somewhat more useful. Providing a research-friendly, enjoyable, and supportive environment might improve students’ attitude towards research courses.

There are two ongoing trends that lead to changing preferences for the built environment. One concerns a demographic transition into more but smaller, and older, households. The other concerns greater possibilities to satisfy residential preferences due to rising incomes and technological advances. The current study explores the preference for the type of residential environment and the underlying motivations. The smaller municipality is most preferred (36%), followed by the city edge (32%), a rural area (13%), the city centre (11%) and no preference (7%). The city centre is preferred because of amenities, ambiance, liveliness and activities. The city edge is preferred because of peace and quiet and easy access to the dwelling. Social contact was rarely mentioned. In contrast, respondents who preferred a smaller municipality frequently mentioned social contact. Furthermore, feeling safe/secure and wellbeing were important items. Finally, respondents with a rural preference mentioned freedom and peace and quiet.

Open data policies are increasingly being adopted by governments. However, civil servants find it challenging to comply with open data policies. Gaming can help civil servants to practise opening data and can change their behaviour to support the opening of more data. In this article, the effect of playing a game is evaluated in an experiment in which several factors that influence the opening of data are compared before and after the game. The benefits appeared in unexpected ways and areas. Data management, privacy and security knowledge was transferred using the game, the perception of benefits showed significant changes, and behavioural intention was positively affected. Points for practitioners: Civil servants’ behaviour influences how public policies are enacted. The release of open data by governments is related by many as crucial for increasing public transparency and civic participation, and generating new economic opportunities. Games can influence the attitude of civil servants and, consequently, change governments’ decisions. Transferring knowledge and providing insights from new experiences can influence civil servants’ attitudes to open data. Moreover, governments can use games to influence civil servants’ attitudes.