Health Bonus of Migrating to Higher Tier Cities: Evidence From China

This paper uses the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) in 2017 to investigate the relationship between inter-city tier migration and health and explores the mechanism and heterogeneity. The results show that migration from low-tier to higher-tier cities positively correlates with health, and the greater the span between the city tiers of inflow and outflow, the better the health. The revenue effect and institutional effect are mediating factors related to upward migration and health, and the mediating role of the institutional effect is more potent than that of the revenue effect. There is intergenerational heterogeneity between the revenue effect and the institutional effect. Among the old generation of migrants, the explanatory power of the institutional effect is stronger than the revenue effect, while the revenue effect and the institutional effect have similar roles among the new generation of migrants. This study suggests that migrating to high-tier cities protects health status through revenue and institutional effects. However, with the intergenerational replacement of migrants, the mediating factors for maintaining good health in high-tier cities that migrants rely on will change.