How does urban amenity affect the willingness of college youth to stay in the city?—empirical evidence from Chinese first-tier cities

TL;DR

This study shows that urban amenities influence college youth's decision to stay in Chinese first-tier cities, with cultural and study amenities being most important.

Contribution

The study introduces a new urban amenity scale and reveals a unique integrative model of urban amenities for Chinese college youth.

Findings

Urban amenities positively affect college youth's willingness to stay in Chinese first-tier cities.

Cultural and study amenities have the strongest impact, followed by life amenities and work amenities.

Chinese talents seek a 'complete package' combining career, daily life, and personal enrichment.

Abstract

For countries in the process of transition from a traditional economy to a knowledge-based and innovative economy, talent is the key to ensure the success of the transition. As the main source of talents, youth in colleges are the foundation and important driving force of social and economic development, and their willingness to stay in the city is of great significance to the development of the city. Previous studies have shown that urban amenity is the attraction of the city to talents, and this study aims at exploring the impact of urban amenity on the willingness of youth in colleges to stay in the city.

First, based on the scientific scale development process, we developed the urban amenity scale based on the subjective evaluation of urban residents. Second, through questionnaire survey, the developed scale was used to verify the positive impact of urban amenity on the willingness of youth in colleges to stay in the city. And the binary logit model was employed in this study.

This study finds that urban amenity positively affects the willingness of colleges youth in first-tier cities to stay in the city. The three dimensions of urban amenity - urban work amenity, urban life amenity, urban cultural amusement and study amenity - all positively affect the willingness of college youth to stay in the city. Moreover, by comparing the Odd Ratio of college youth’s willingness to stay in the city in first-tier cities, it is found that urban cultural amusement and study amenity has the greatest impact on the willingness of college youth to stay in the city, second is urban life amenity, and the last is urban work amenity.

The findings of this study add nuance to the global literature by demonstrating that for Chinese college youth, urban amenities are not a replacement for economic concerns but a complement. The significance of all three dimensions of amenity shows that Chinese talents seek a “complete package”. It means a city that should offers strong career prospects (work amenity), a convenient and stable daily life (life amenity), and opportunities for personal enrichment and social belonging (cultural and study amenity). Western studies often highlight a tension between economic and cultural drivers, our results from China suggest a more integrative model.