Dilemmas for regional inequality in talent aggregation through environmental amenities: Re-examine China's hukou puzzle

The recognition that poor environmental amenities can lead to brain drain and cause a decline in urban innovation has become commonplace. However, in the Chinese context, previous studies rarely address the inequalities created by institutional constraints when discussing amenity-driven migration. This also highlights the lack of careful examination of the application of amenities theory to real institutions in China. When China's hukou institutional constraints are included in the analysis, it is necessary to revisit the effect of air environmental amenities on talent aggregation. The paper confirms that air pollution significantly reduces cities' talent scale. Subtle differences within talent groups suggest that when considering air environmental amenities alone, talent with a junior college degree is more likely to avoid pollution than talent with a bachelor's degree or higher. More importantly, the quantity and quality of public services constrained by hukou in a city reveal a potential threshold effect: a structural change in which the better the public services, the less negative the impact of air pollution on the talent scale. In promoting sustainable development, the effectiveness of urban amenities will benefit from a combination of improved environmental quality and increased accessibility to public services. The paper critically reflects on the application of Western amenities theory in Chinese cases.