Wealth or health? Haze pollution, intergenerational migration experience and settlement intentions of rural migrant workers

This study employs the haze data and micro-level data from China Migrant Data Survey to examine the relations of haze pollution, intergenerational migration experience and settlement intentions of rural migrant workers. We identify that there is an inverted-U relationship between haze pollution on rural migrant workers' settlement intention; the threshold for this inverted U-shaped relationship is 31; migrants are more likely to settle while haze pollution grows below the threshold; but they are more likely to leave while haze pollution increases above the threshold. Further, this study finds that intergenerational migration experience increases individual's perception of haze pollution. The results show that the impact of haze pollution on settlement intention of firsttime rural migrant workers and those whose parents do not have migration experience is not significant. But the inverted U-shape effect remains significant for individuals with multiple migration experience and those whose parents have migration experience. Finally, compared to migration experience of father, that of mother exerts a more significant impact on individual's perception of haze.