{"title":"How does environmental quality perception influence people's fertility intention? Evidence from China","authors":"Jiaping Zhang, Xiaomei Gong","doi":"10.1111/1467-8454.12290","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The ongoing population aging and few children are major challenges for human sustainable development in the 21st century. While the external environment is a crucial factor determining people's behaviour, the potential effects of subjective environmental quality on an individual's fertility decision-making remain poorly understood. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey, this research has examined the relationship between environmental quality perception and fertility intention in China. Results reveal that an increase in environmental quality perception can significantly promote people's fertility intention. Our study proposes and verifies two pathways through which environmental quality perception affects fertility intention, namely, well-being and future expectation. This facilitating effect is greater for people with poor socio-economic conditions. The findings indicate that policymakers should coordinate environmental protection and population policies to promote sustainable development and design various tools targeted based on people's socio-economic background.</p>","PeriodicalId":46169,"journal":{"name":"Australian Economic Papers","volume":"62 2","pages":"272-296"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Economic Papers","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8454.12290","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The ongoing population aging and few children are major challenges for human sustainable development in the 21st century. While the external environment is a crucial factor determining people's behaviour, the potential effects of subjective environmental quality on an individual's fertility decision-making remain poorly understood. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey, this research has examined the relationship between environmental quality perception and fertility intention in China. Results reveal that an increase in environmental quality perception can significantly promote people's fertility intention. Our study proposes and verifies two pathways through which environmental quality perception affects fertility intention, namely, well-being and future expectation. This facilitating effect is greater for people with poor socio-economic conditions. The findings indicate that policymakers should coordinate environmental protection and population policies to promote sustainable development and design various tools targeted based on people's socio-economic background.
期刊介绍:
Australian Economic Papers publishes innovative and thought provoking contributions that extend the frontiers of the subject, written by leading international economists in theoretical, empirical and policy economics. Australian Economic Papers is a forum for debate between theorists, econometricians and policy analysts and covers an exceptionally wide range of topics on all the major fields of economics as well as: theoretical and empirical industrial organisation, theoretical and empirical labour economics and, macro and micro policy analysis.