Zhiming Cheng
Biographic Data
| ID | 3793607 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zhiming Cheng |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zhiming |
| FAMILY NAME | Cheng |
| SIGNATURE | CHENG Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7996-0586 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 218 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The ‘Healthy Migrant Effect’ and Ageing: Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy of the Migrant and Native-born Populations in Australia
How health status changes as migrants age and become to their host country remains underexplored. This study investigates two key indicators—life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE)—among migrants in Australia using nationally representative secondary data, including census-based Estimated Resident Population, 1% Census sample, and mortality statistics. LE refers to the average number of years a person is expected to live, while HLE…
When fiscal and administrative decentralization vary in pace: The impact of fiscal decentralization on local environment performance
As I know, there is nothing there for our people”: Unmasking mental health literacy and help-seeking attitudes among ethnic minorities in Hong Kong
Ethnic minorities bear a great burden of mental health problems and have been shown to underutilize mental health services. Mental health literacy – critical for recognizing and addressing these issues – remains underexplored among ethnic minorities, particularly regarding their interaction with health systems. This article aims to understand ethnic minorities’ mental health literacy and help-seeking attitudes in a multicultural context. Specific…
Choosing culture or nature: How temporal landmarks affect tourism destination preferences
Changing impact of Covid-19 on life expectancy 2019–2023 and its decomposition: Findings from 27 countries
The pandemic has caused substantial short-term mortality variations during 2019-2023 in the 27 countries studied. Although most of the 27 countries experienced increased life expectancy after 2022, life expectancy in 22 countries still has not entirely regained its pre-pandemic level by May 2023. Threats of COVID-19 are more prominent for older adults and men, but special attention is needed for women aged 85+ years
Nativity in the healthy migrant effect: Evidence from Australia
Migrant health constitutes an important public health issue; however, variations in the 'healthy migrant effect' among migrants of different nativity are not adequately understood. To fill this gap, this study examines the life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) of the Australian-born population and eight major migrant groups in Australia for 2006, 2011 and 2016. The results show that compared with the Australian-born population, t…
Decomposing the differences in healthy life expectancy between migrants and natives: The ‘healthy migrant effect’ and its age variations in Australia
Parental early-life exposure to land reform and household investment in children’s education
We examine the intergenerational relationship between the early-life exposure of parents to China’s Household Responsibility System (HRS) reform, which assigned collective-owned farmland to individual households, and investment in their children’s education. We find that an increase in the length of exposure of parents to the HRS reform when they were children or adolescents increases the extent to which they invest in their children’s education,…
Migrants’ Skills Wastage in the Labor Market: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Policy Formation
Projections of Future Demand and Costs of Aged Care Services in China
Refugees as Skilled Migrants: Insights from Australia's 2018 Employer-Sponsored Refugee Migration Pilot
Many of the more than 27 million refugees in the world today are highly educated professionals, but resolving their displacement via skilled migration pathways is typically not possible. At the request of employers facing severe skill shortages and the coordination of Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB)-a non-profit organisation-the Australian government introduced in 2018 a pilot program enabling employers to sponsor refugees through an employment co…
Parental misbeliefs and household investment in children's education
Social assimilation and immigrants’ labour market outcomes
We analyse how immigrants’ level of social assimilation is related to their labour market outcomes. More precisely, we estimate the association between assimilation and employment, wages, underemployment, three measures of job satisfaction, overeducation and wages. Using Australian longitudinal data, we find that assimilation is strongly associated with employment and wages as well as a number of job satisfaction measures. We then split our data …
Ageing, Health, Loneliness and Wellbeing
Working parents, financial insecurity, and childcare: Mental health in the time of Covid-19 in the UK
Digital policy to disability employment? An ecosystem perspective on China and Australia
Globally, labour markets are encountering profound changes because of the digital revolution. Middle‐income countries such as China are leapfrogging high‐income countries to take advantage of the digital economy. The growing use of digital technologies is also reshaping the labour market in high‐income countries such as Australia. Potentially, new technologies may facilitate both employers and employees to overcome some of the barriers to disabil…
English skills and early labour market integration: Evidence from humanitarian migrants in Australia
This paper uses panel data from the Building a New Life in Australia survey to examine the relationship between proficiency in English and labour market outcomes among humanitarian migrants. We show that having better general or speaking skills in English is associated with a higher propensity for participation in the labour force and success in getting a job. We also find that participating in an English training programme is strongly and positi…
Why do low‐skilled foreign workers have a wage advantage? Evidence from the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia
Developing countries host more than one third of international migrants. However, research on the labour market outcomes of low‐skilled international migrant workers in developing countries is limited. We examine the presence and sources of wage differentials across native and foreign low‐skilled workers in the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia, which hosts a large population of foreign workers. We find that Indonesian foreign workers have a…
Housing wealth and happiness in Urban China
Consumption and Happiness
We examine the relationship between (relative) consumption and happiness using panel data for China, an important developing country. We find that consumption has a positive effect on happiness. An increase in the average consumption of those of the same age, education and gender at the community level has a positive effect on happiness, consistent with a signalling effect, while an increase in the consumption of the highest spenders in this grou…
How social support influences university students' academic achievement and emotional exhaustion: The mediating role of self-esteem
Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi and Job Satisfaction Among Migrant Workers in China
Market mechanisms and migrant settlement intentions in urban China
This study examines the settlement intentions of migrants based on original survey data collected from four large Chinese cities. Despite the long-lasting institutional effects of the hukou (household registration) system, market mechanisms are becoming increasingly important in affecting migrant settlement intentions. Although rural hukou holders are more likely to return to their places of origin, migrants who have received higher education, wh…
Achievement goals and life satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Perception of Successful Agency and the Moderating Role of Emotion Reappraisal
Achievement goals are cognitive representations that guide behavior to a competence-related future end state. Existing theories and empirical findings suggest that achievement goals are potentially related to life satisfaction. However, the relationship between achievement goals and life satisfaction remains relatively unexplored in the psychology literature. In this study, we examined how, why, and when achievement goals affect life satisfaction…
Wellbeing in China
Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: A comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals
This study investigates determinants of happiness and job satisfaction of urban locals, first-generation migrants and new-generation migrants in China’s urban workforce. We present evidence to suggest that new-generation migrants are less satisfied with their jobs and lives than first-generation migrants, despite having higher income. This finding is consistent with aspirations rising faster than income in China’s fast-growing urban economy
Access to social insurance in urban China: A comparative study of rural–urban and urban–urban migrants in Beijing
The impact of China’s new Labour Contract Law on socioeconomic outcomes for migrant and urban workers
This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjecti…
Discrimination in Migrant Workers' Welfare Entitlements and Benefits in Urban Labour Market: Findings from a Four-City Study in China
In the Chinese cities, migrants have been treated differently from urban locals in varied aspects because of their rural or non-local hukou (household registration) status. But the existing literature provides little understanding on how migrant workers' welfare entitlements and benefits are affected by discrimination and institution in the urban labour market. On the basis of an extended analytical framework that examines not only the segregatio…
A distributional analysis of wage discrimination against migrant workers in China’s urban labour market
Chinese internal migrants without a local hukou (household registration) are often discriminated against in the urban labour market. This study examines the impacts of such discrimination on wage differentials and the distribution among urban locals, urban migrants and rural migrants. It uses an extended analytical framework of segmented labour market to examine the multiple segmentations between urban residents and rural migrants and between loc…
Do neighbourhoods have effects on wages? A study of migrant workers in urban China
Employment and wage discrimination in the Chinese cities: A comparative study of migrants and locals
The changing and different patterns of urban redevelopment in China: A Study of Three Inner-City Neighborhoods
China's urban growth is phenomenal, but some studies tend to see it as a consistent macro process without much turbulence at the micro levels. This article examines inner-city redevelopment in China by analyzing the cases of three types of neighborhoods: a work-unit compound, a historic quarter, and an urban village. It discusses how these projects were implemented, which actors were involved, and who the beneficiaries were. It argues that differ…
Housing wealth and happiness in Urban China
Market mechanisms and migrant settlement intentions in urban China
This study examines the settlement intentions of migrants based on original survey data collected from four large Chinese cities. Despite the long-lasting institutional effects of the hukou (household registration) system, market mechanisms are becoming increasingly important in affecting migrant settlement intentions. Although rural hukou holders are more likely to return to their places of origin, migrants who have received higher education, wh…
Layoffs in China's City of Textiles: Adaptation to Change
Urban poverty among laid-off workers has become one of the major challenges confronting China due to the massive retrenchment of state employees since the 1990s. While a great deal of research has focused on the general situation or the analysis of aggregate-level data, the workers themselves have been given much less attention. Based on data from Shaanxi Province, this paper examines the current status of the former state workers and their famil…
Ageing, Health, Loneliness and Wellbeing
Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi and Job Satisfaction Among Migrant Workers in China
Why are Migrants' Not Participating in Welfare Programs? Evidence from Shanghai, China
In recent years, Chinese cities have attempted to extend urban welfare provisions to migrants, but migrants' participation in such programs is relatively low. This paper examines migrant welfare participation in Shanghai and its association with personal characteristics, institutional factors, the labor market, attitudes about welfare programs and settlement intention. Except for hukou status, knowledge about policies and settlement intention, al…
The Effects of Employee Involvement and Participation on Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from Urban China
Layoffs and Urban Poverty in the State-Owned Enterprise Communities in Shaanxi Province, China
English skills and early labour market integration: Evidence from humanitarian migrants in Australia
This paper uses panel data from the Building a New Life in Australia survey to examine the relationship between proficiency in English and labour market outcomes among humanitarian migrants. We show that having better general or speaking skills in English is associated with a higher propensity for participation in the labour force and success in getting a job. We also find that participating in an English training programme is strongly and positi…
Wellbeing in China
Social assimilation and immigrants’ labour market outcomes
We analyse how immigrants’ level of social assimilation is related to their labour market outcomes. More precisely, we estimate the association between assimilation and employment, wages, underemployment, three measures of job satisfaction, overeducation and wages. Using Australian longitudinal data, we find that assimilation is strongly associated with employment and wages as well as a number of job satisfaction measures. We then split our data …
Environmental Perceptions, Happiness and Pro-environmental Actions in China
Choosing culture or nature: How temporal landmarks affect tourism destination preferences
Refugees as Skilled Migrants: Insights from Australia's 2018 Employer-Sponsored Refugee Migration Pilot
Many of the more than 27 million refugees in the world today are highly educated professionals, but resolving their displacement via skilled migration pathways is typically not possible. At the request of employers facing severe skill shortages and the coordination of Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB)-a non-profit organisation-the Australian government introduced in 2018 a pilot program enabling employers to sponsor refugees through an employment co…
Why do low‐skilled foreign workers have a wage advantage? Evidence from the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia
Developing countries host more than one third of international migrants. However, research on the labour market outcomes of low‐skilled international migrant workers in developing countries is limited. We examine the presence and sources of wage differentials across native and foreign low‐skilled workers in the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia, which hosts a large population of foreign workers. We find that Indonesian foreign workers have a…
Participation and expenditure of migrants in the illegal lottery in China’s Pearl River Delta
Using a unique data-set from the Pearl River Delta in China, we examine the factors associated with rural-urban migrants’ participation in and expenditure on illegal gambling. The characteristics that have the largest marginal effects on participation and expenditure are gender, whether one also participates in the legal lottery and playing mahjong and other card games. Of the variables specific to the migration experience, we find that living in…
Decomposing the differences in healthy life expectancy between migrants and natives: The ‘healthy migrant effect’ and its age variations in Australia
Disparités du marché du travail, pauvreté et inégalité en Chine urbaine
Cet article s’intéresse à la pauvreté et aux inégalités de revenus dans la Chine urbaine à travers l’analyse de données récentes recueillies lors d’enquêtes conduites dans quatre des plus grandes villes chinoises. S’appuyant sur des mesures quantitatives telles que des indices de pauvreté et le coefficient de Gini, cet article étudie la pauvreté et les inégalités de revenus dans trois groupes : les résidents urbains, les migrants urbains et les m…
Poverty in China’s Urban Communities: Profile and Correlates
In China’s transition to a market economy, the old socialist system which included full employment and comprehensive social welfare for urban citizens has been replaced by an emerging labour market and a rebuilt social security. The collapse of the old system has thrown a large number of retrenched state workers into poverty and then concentrated the poor in particular communities. This study specifically addresses urban poverty in the state-ente…
The changing and different patterns of urban redevelopment in China: A Study of Three Inner-City Neighborhoods
China's urban growth is phenomenal, but some studies tend to see it as a consistent macro process without much turbulence at the micro levels. This article examines inner-city redevelopment in China by analyzing the cases of three types of neighborhoods: a work-unit compound, a historic quarter, and an urban village. It discusses how these projects were implemented, which actors were involved, and who the beneficiaries were. It argues that differ…
Layoffs in China's City of Textiles: Adaptation to Change
Urban poverty among laid-off workers has become one of the major challenges confronting China due to the massive retrenchment of state employees since the 1990s. While a great deal of research has focused on the general situation or the analysis of aggregate-level data, the workers themselves have been given much less attention. Based on data from Shaanxi Province, this paper examines the current status of the former state workers and their famil…
Discrimination in Migrant Workers' Welfare Entitlements and Benefits in Urban Labour Market: Findings from a Four-City Study in China
In the Chinese cities, migrants have been treated differently from urban locals in varied aspects because of their rural or non-local hukou (household registration) status. But the existing literature provides little understanding on how migrant workers' welfare entitlements and benefits are affected by discrimination and institution in the urban labour market. On the basis of an extended analytical framework that examines not only the segregatio…
Do neighbourhoods have effects on wages? A study of migrant workers in urban China
Employment and wage discrimination in the Chinese cities: A comparative study of migrants and locals
Participation and expenditure of migrants in the illegal lottery in China’s Pearl River Delta
Using a unique data-set from the Pearl River Delta in China, we examine the factors associated with rural-urban migrants’ participation in and expenditure on illegal gambling. The characteristics that have the largest marginal effects on participation and expenditure are gender, whether one also participates in the legal lottery and playing mahjong and other card games. Of the variables specific to the migration experience, we find that living in…
Access to social insurance in urban China: A comparative study of rural–urban and urban–urban migrants in Beijing
Why are Migrants' Not Participating in Welfare Programs? Evidence from Shanghai, China
In recent years, Chinese cities have attempted to extend urban welfare provisions to migrants, but migrants' participation in such programs is relatively low. This paper examines migrant welfare participation in Shanghai and its association with personal characteristics, institutional factors, the labor market, attitudes about welfare programs and settlement intention. Except for hukou status, knowledge about policies and settlement intention, al…
Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: A comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals
This study investigates determinants of happiness and job satisfaction of urban locals, first-generation migrants and new-generation migrants in China’s urban workforce. We present evidence to suggest that new-generation migrants are less satisfied with their jobs and lives than first-generation migrants, despite having higher income. This finding is consistent with aspirations rising faster than income in China’s fast-growing urban economy
The Effects of Employee Involvement and Participation on Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from Urban China
Layoffs and Urban Poverty in the State-Owned Enterprise Communities in Shaanxi Province, China
A distributional analysis of wage discrimination against migrant workers in China’s urban labour market
Chinese internal migrants without a local hukou (household registration) are often discriminated against in the urban labour market. This study examines the impacts of such discrimination on wage differentials and the distribution among urban locals, urban migrants and rural migrants. It uses an extended analytical framework of segmented labour market to examine the multiple segmentations between urban residents and rural migrants and between loc…
The impact of China’s new Labour Contract Law on socioeconomic outcomes for migrant and urban workers
This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjecti…
Why Give it Away When You Need it Yourself? Understanding Public Support for Foreign Aid in China
In this study we examine the determinants of public support for foreign aid in China. We find that while political ideology and sense of national identity are the most important determinants of support for foreign aid, several demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and income, are also important. We also find that those living in the lower income western provinces and in provinces with higher poverty rates express less support for givin…
Market mechanisms and migrant settlement intentions in urban China
This study examines the settlement intentions of migrants based on original survey data collected from four large Chinese cities. Despite the long-lasting institutional effects of the hukou (household registration) system, market mechanisms are becoming increasingly important in affecting migrant settlement intentions. Although rural hukou holders are more likely to return to their places of origin, migrants who have received higher education, wh…
Achievement goals and life satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Perception of Successful Agency and the Moderating Role of Emotion Reappraisal
Achievement goals are cognitive representations that guide behavior to a competence-related future end state. Existing theories and empirical findings suggest that achievement goals are potentially related to life satisfaction. However, the relationship between achievement goals and life satisfaction remains relatively unexplored in the psychology literature. In this study, we examined how, why, and when achievement goals affect life satisfaction…
Wellbeing in China
The Intermediate Linkage Between Materialism and Luxury Consumption: Evidence from the Emerging Market of China
Environmental Perceptions, Happiness and Pro-environmental Actions in China
How social support influences university students' academic achievement and emotional exhaustion: The mediating role of self-esteem
Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi and Job Satisfaction Among Migrant Workers in China
Consumption and Happiness
We examine the relationship between (relative) consumption and happiness using panel data for China, an important developing country. We find that consumption has a positive effect on happiness. An increase in the average consumption of those of the same age, education and gender at the community level has a positive effect on happiness, consistent with a signalling effect, while an increase in the consumption of the highest spenders in this grou…
Why do low‐skilled foreign workers have a wage advantage? Evidence from the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia
Developing countries host more than one third of international migrants. However, research on the labour market outcomes of low‐skilled international migrant workers in developing countries is limited. We examine the presence and sources of wage differentials across native and foreign low‐skilled workers in the palm oil plantation sector in Malaysia, which hosts a large population of foreign workers. We find that Indonesian foreign workers have a…
Economics (30 works) · China (26 works) · Political science (24 works) · Economic growth (20 works) · Geography (19 works) · Business (18 works) · Demographic economics (18 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance (14 works)