Children's education or parents' employment: How do people choose their place of residence in Beijing

Residential mobility has become an increasingly important issue in China, where urban families participate frenetically in the commodity housing market leading to soaring property prices. Applying place dependence approach and logistic regression models, this paper examines the association between residential mobility intentions and place dependence for employment and education in Beijing. The results reveal that people's intentions to move homes are driven by place dependence on the access to high-quality schools for their children, while the dependence for employment is rather weak. The findings indicate children's education has emerged as a new driving force that shapes urban space in contemporary China and therefore should be a focal point for planners and policy makers in urban resource distribution. This paper provides evidences to further our understanding of the high premium of properties that enable access to good schools. The needs for other spatial utilities and sentimental attachment to a place also encourage residential mobility intentions, which deserves further research.