Effects of urban migrants’ public services access on non-housing consumption under housing pressure in China

Urban migrants face many consumption problems in developing countries. This study systematically examines the impact of migrants’ housing affordability on families’ non-housing consumption from the perspective of leasing, and it explores the mechanism underlying the effect of the level of access to public services on it. This study finds the following: (1) There is a significant double-threshold effect in the crowding-out effect of weakened housing affordability on the household non-housing consumption of migrants, with threshold values of 20.6% and 40.0%. (2) There is a significant non-linear relationship between the housing affordability and the household non-housing consumption of migrants with regard to the threshold of the public service level. With the increase in the threshold value of public services, the crowding-out effect of the weakening of housing affordability on non-housing consumption gradually weakens. (3) The influence of housing affordability on non-housing consumption has significant heterogeneous effects. The crowding-out effect of weakened housing affordability on non-housing consumption is more obvious for third-tier cities, shared-rental households, and migrant households that have lived in the local area for more than 5 years. This study has important theoretical and policy implications for how to promote the consumption of migrants.