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2024_05_09_a4595c01950bb26f143dg

 Occupational mobility and subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population

 I. Empirical evidence from China


Introduction: This paper provides an in-depth discussion of the impact of occupational mobility of the agricultural migrant population on subjective well-being, and analyzes it using micro-survey data from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS).

Methods: In this paper, we used ordered probability regression and propensity score matching to analyze the main results and heterogeneity, and then used moderated mediation effect tests to analyze the mechanisms.

Results and Discussion: This paper presents several major findings: 1. The agricultural transfer population is generally happier, but there is still much room for improvement in subjective well-being. 2. Upward occupational mobility has a significant positive effect on subjective well-being, while poor occupational stability and self-employment have a significant negative effect on subjective well-being. 3. The occupational mobility affects the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population through relative deprivation. Occupational mobility affects the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population through relative deprivation, and the perception of future expectations plays a moderating role in the influence of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, and further moderates the mediating role of relative deprivation in the influence of occupational mobility on subjective well-being.3 The influence of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population is characterized by heterogeneity in terms of age and mobility distance. The contributions of the present study are as follows: 1) To analyze the impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being from the perspectives of direction of occupational mobility, frequency of occupational mobility, and change of employment mode in a more detailed way. 2) This paper includes and pays attention to the normalized mobility mode of transferring to a nearby location, and at the same time classifies the groups of the agricultural migrant population according to their age and distance of mobility, to explore the impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being of different groups. This paper incorporates relative deprivation and future expectation perception into the theoretical framework of the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, in-depth discussion of the internal logic of the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, and the use of moderated mediation model to empirically test the path mechanism of the impact of the two.

介绍


In recent years, China's agricultural migrant population has been growing rapidly, and their career choices and pursuit of happiness have changed. By the end of 2022, the total number of migrant workers in China had reached 295.62 million, growing year by year and widely distributed in various industries of the national economy, which is the backbone of the economic development of the inflow area and even China's economic growth (National Bureau of Statistics, 2022). Urbanization is the road to China's modernization, and "people-oriented" new urbanization is an effective way to better meet the people's needs for a better life, and should continuously enhance the people's sense of obtainment, happiness and security. Employment is one of the important sources of happiness. It has been proved that occupational mobility and rural-urban migration promote the rational allocation of factors, which is one of the right paths to realize the happiness of China's agricultural population, and at the same time meets the requirements of modernization and high-quality development of the country in the new era. However, in the process of transferring, the agricultural migrant population faces many problems, such as citizenship and employment change, which leads to a discount in the acquisition of subjective happiness (Xiao, Weihuang et al., 2023; Tian, X., 2022).

According to the Global Happiness Index Report 2023, although China's happiness index has been improving year by year, pessimism about the future is still prevalent among the interviewees, and some low-income, unemployed, poorly educated, and long-distance workers are unable to feel good about their lives, and the group of agricultural migrants meets these characteristics. The reason for this is that occupation, as the basis for personal survival and development, has a deep rooted influence on subjective well-being. "Mobility" is one of the most essential and core characteristics of China's agricultural transfer population since its birth, and along with urbanization and high-quality development, occupational mobility has become the most common and important form of labor mobility. Occupational mobility is a visual manifestation of agricultural mobility, which triggers changes in individual psychology, cultural cognition, and socioeconomic status. When individuals or groups are in an unfavorable position in the society, the sense of relative deprivation increases, and the subjective sense of well-being decreases (Luo Biliang et al., 2021). Therefore, one of the most important directions to improve the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population is to promote the upgrading of career development and realize high-quality employment.

Subjective well-being in the field of economics first originated from the theory of happiness in Western philosophy, and the enthusiasm for the study of subjective well-being in modern economics began with the famous "Easterlin Paradox," which states that there is no significant positive correlation between income and happiness (Easterlin, 1974). Subjective well-being refers to a healthy and happy state of life. First, early definitions of subjective well-being generally recognized emotion as a single dimension, divided into positive and negative emotions. Second, Bradburn proposed that positive and negative emotions belong to different dimensions, Andrews (1976) added the cognitive dimension of subjective well-being (life satisfaction) as a third dimension, and sociological and psychological researchers developed measures of the cognitive dimension (life satisfaction). Later, Diener et al. (1985) defined subjective well-being as the evaluator's overall assessment of his/her quality of life according to self-defined criteria. In recent years, studies on the influencing factors of subjective well-being have become increasingly rich, mainly focusing on the fields of sociology, demography, and economics, such as individual, family, and social factors (Youliang et al. 2018; Leng Chenxin et al. 2022; Lv Xueliang et al. 2023; Liang Yuan et al. 2022; Luo Mingzhong et al. 2022; Wu Benjian et al. 2023).

Research on occupational mobility began with the book "Social Mobility" published by sociologist Sorokin (1927), which pointed out the accelerating effect of social mobility on socio-economic development. Further, sociologists Blau and Duncan (1967) proposed the "Blau-Duncan model", which can convert occupational status into international socio-economic status index, and measure changes in occupational mobility by comparing occupational socio-economic status indices. Existing research focuses on how to effectively measure occupational standards, and most of the occupational measures are based on the International Socio-Economic Status Indicator (ISEI), International Occupational Prestige Indicator (SIOPS), and EGP classifications (Chen, Weimin, 2023; Wang, Hui, 2023). At present, relevant domestic studies on the influencing factors of labor force career mobility are largely

It can be categorized into two research orientations: internal and external factors .

Currently, few studies have focused directly on the impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being, mostly from the perspectives of income, employment quality, and social mobility (Xu Haiping et al. 2020; Chen Lijun et al. 2022; Timothy, 2007; Chri istophe, 2019). Research on the relationship between the two began with the relative deprivation theory, which suggests that the effect of occupational mobility on subjective well-being stems from the relative deprivation that occurs when comparing socioeconomic status with others (Runciman; 1966). Some studies have focused on the different manifestations of occupational mobility and its impact on subjective well-being. On the one hand, the gradual improvement of related theories such as the separation hypothesis and the disenchantment hypothesis has provided a variety of research perspectives on social mobility. Based on the different choices of starting point and end point of mobility, occupational mobility has gradually developed into two dimensions of analysis: intra-generational occupational mobility and inter-generational occupational mobility, and there are subjective and objective differences in occupational evaluation, which are mainly manifested in terms of direction, frequency, and nature of the work (Chen, Rumor, et al., 2022; Li, Min, et al., 2021). On the other hand, upward and downward career mobility can bring positive or negative psychological experiences to individuals (Fan, 2021; Fasang, 2012; Bjørnskov, 2013). Some studies have also found that although downward career mobility significantly reduces subjective well-being, upward career mobility does not have a significant effect on subjective well-being, and even affects mental health (Lu, Yuanping et al., 2014). Pathways regarding the role of career mobility on subjective well-being include relative deprivation, social trust, government trust, social participation, and social fairness (Wang Jie et al. 2022; Huang Silin et al. 2017; Zhang Jingwei, 2021).

Based on this, this paper utilizes the data of CFPS2020 to measure occupational mobility by using the change of international standard occupational socio-economic status index, portrays the current situation of occupational mobility and subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, reveals the relationship between the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, explores the intermediary role of the relative deprivation in the process of the impact and the moderating intermediary role of the perceived future expectation, and discusses in detail the heterogeneity of the impacts, and further elucidates the suggestions for countermeasures to improve the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population. It also explores the mediating role of relative deprivation and the mediating role of perception of future expectation in the process of influence, and discusses the heterogeneity of influence between the two in detail to further elucidate the countermeasures and suggestions to enhance the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population.

 Theoretical framework and assumptions

 The direct impact of career mobility on subjective well-being


Early Jimmy Benson introduced the concept of utility into social sciences, according to the principle of maximum utility, upward occupational mobility can increase the absolute income and economic status of individuals, enrich material life, and encourage them to turn to the pursuit of spiritual life satisfaction. The "Easterlin Paradox" points out that although macroeconomic development is difficult to promote the overall happiness of society, absolute income growth at the micro level still has a positive effect on subjective happiness. However, the idea that higher absolute incomes lead to higher subjective well-being has been challenged by many studies (Alesina et al., 2001). A growing number of studies have found that the contribution of absolute income growth to individual happiness is constrained by relative income, making the results insignificant, but lower absolute income still has a significant negative effect on happiness. First, for the direction of occupational mobility. On the one hand, occupational class is closely related to absolute income, and the conclusion that occupational mobility affects subjective well-being is often similar to the conclusion that income and socioeconomic status affect well-being (Easterlin, 2001; Lyubomirsky et al., 1999); on the other hand, occupational mobility has a much richer meaning than absolute income, which not only reflects the social class mobility and resulting economic and status mobility, but also reflects the social class mobility and the economic and status mobility, and can also reflect the social class mobility and the economic and status mobility. On the other hand, occupational mobility has a richer meaning than absolute income, not only reflecting social class mobility and the resulting economic and status mobility, but also visualizing the quantitative changes in economic and status mobility. Therefore, occupational mobility to a certain extent brings about changes in economic and social status, which in turn affects changes in subjective well-being. Upward career mobility can enhance subjective well-being, while downward career mobility can reduce subjective well-being. Secondly, for the frequency of occupational mobility, the frequency of occupational mobility is one of the most intuitive indicators to describe the phenomenon of occupational mobility. Rural migrant laborers often face the risk of unemployment, employment stability is poor, and the reduction of employment stability will bring a series of economic and social problems (Chen Jiwei).

(et al., 2016). Wang Huihui et al. (2014) concluded that occupational stability is significantly related to subjective well-being. Occupational stability provides individuals with sustained economic income and livelihood security, which helps the agricultural transfer population to develop a solid social network and social support, smoothly integrate into the new social environment, enhance the sense of belonging and identity, and thus improve subjective well-being. Finally, as the role and value of self-employment continues to increase, some studies have found that entrepreneurs have a higher sense of well-being than employed workers, and engaging in self-employment is not only conducive to alleviating the pressure of unemployment and reducing the burden on the family, but also enhances the sense of well-being of personal life. However, Lei Yangyang (2016) found that the subjective happiness of self-employed people is significantly lower than that of employed people when comparing the difference between self-employed people and employed people; meanwhile, Wang Qiong et al. (2020) found that the happiness effect of survival entrepreneurship and self-employed entrepreneurship is not significant, and even shows a negative trend in the study of farmers' entrepreneurship. For the majority of the agricultural transfer population, who bear the main living expenses and family responsibilities, employment is one of the important economic sources, and self-employment is mostly a survival type of entrepreneurship that faces many challenges. Being employed by others means having a stable source of income, which helps to reduce economic pressure and improve living standards. At the same time, being employed has fixed working hours, clear job responsibilities and better social security than self-employment, all of which are conducive to the improvement of subjective well-being. Therefore, the change from self-employment to employment can improve the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population.
 Based on this, the first set of hypotheses is proposed in this study.

Hypothesis 1: Occupational mobility significantly affects the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population.

Hypothesis 1a: Upward career mobility significantly increases subjective well-being and downward career mobility significantly decreases subjective well-being.

Hypothesis 1b: Strong occupational stability significantly increases subjective well-being and poor occupational stability significantly decreases subjective well-being.

Hypothesis 1c: Changing from self-employment to employment significantly increases subjective well-being and changing from employment to self-employment significantly decreases subjective well-being.

 The mediating role of relative deprivation in the impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being


According to the theory of relative deprivation and the theory of social comparison, the main reason for differences in subjective well-being is the comparison of relative social status. Individuals' "relative deprivation" becomes more and more serious with the increase of income inequality, which in turn reduces subjective well-being. In vernacular societies, the increase in relative deprivation due to income inequality among rural residents leads to a decrease in the well-being of farm households, a mechanism known as the "relative deprivation effect" (Emma et al., 2016). For most of the agricultural transfer population, increasing income is the most direct and important pull force that drives their occupational mobility and rural-urban migration. First of all, occupational mobility may change the degree of individual income inequality, thus making the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population change. When the career upward mobility, economic and social status, social inequality is suppressed, the relative deprivation will be greatly reduced, thus enhancing the subjective sense of well-being; Secondly, strong occupational stability means that there is a long-term stable economic source and livelihood security, which is conducive to the development of a solid social network and social support system for individuals to better integrate into the local community, enhance the sense of belonging and identity, and reduce the uncertainty and anxiety of life. Finally, when the mode of employment changes from self-employment to employment, the individual receives regular remuneration for his/her work, his/her job responsibilities are clearly defined, his/her career development path is clear, and his/her time is reasonably allocated, thus reducing the sense of relative deprivation and increasing the sense of subjective well-being. Therefore, career mobility can trigger changes in relative deprivation, which in turn affects subjective well-being. Based on this, hypothesis 2 is proposed.

Hypothesis 2: Relative deprivation mediates the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of agricultural migrants.


The moderating mediating role of perceived future expectations in the impact of career mobility on subjective well-being


According to the theory of utility and tunnel effect, the utility that people obtain not only depends on the current material conditions, but also positively correlates with the expectation of the future. Some studies have found that a certain range of income disparity can prompt low-income groups to have higher expectations of future economic prospects, generating a positive "tunnel effect" and increasing individual incentive levels, which, in turn, can help to enhance the sense of well-being. Luo Mingzhong et al. also argued in the comparison of residents' social status with others that the positive expectation of "tunnel effect" would significantly enhance residents' happiness. Therefore, the attitude and degree of anticipation towards future possessions tend to influence the role of occupational mobility on subjective well-being (Alesina et al., 2001). Positive future expectations will make up for the shortcomings of current economic or occupational status through the substitution effect, reduce relative deprivation, and enhance subjective well-being; negative future expectations, on the other hand, will magnify the dissatisfaction with current economic or occupational status, increase relative deprivation, and reduce subjective well-being. Meanwhile, the development of the agricultural migrant population formed under the planned economy system in China is easily affected by the government's policy orientation and institutional arrangement, and their special situation makes them more affected by the perception of future expectations. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Hypothesis 3: Perceived future expectations have a moderating role in the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population.

Hypothesis 4: Perceived future expectations mediate the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of agricultural migrants.

 Heterogeneity in the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population


The "agricultural transfer population" is a large and complex group, and its internal stratification is realized due to many reasons. Different levels and types of agricultural transfer population have different problems in the process of transferring, and their actual needs and expectations also differ, and the subjective happiness they obtain reflects heterogeneity. From the age point of view, the young and middle-aged population is in the stage of struggle, with greater expectations for career advancement, and the upward mobility of occupation plays a stronger role in enhancing their subjective sense of well-being. The elderly population is in a stable stage, the effect of upward career mobility on their subjective well-being is relatively weaker, and they prefer stable and secure jobs; from the perspective of mobility distance, the agricultural transfer population who are not transferred to the nearby areas enter the urban life, and they face a new social and working environment, and the upward career mobility often implies the improvement of the economic and social status in the geographical area where they are located, which is much stronger than the effect of upward career mobility on the subjective well-being of the population transferred to nearby areas. The effect of occupational mobility on subjective well-being is stronger than that of occupational mobility of the nearby transferring population. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed.

H5: Heterogeneity in the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population.

H5a: Heterogeneity in the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of agricultural transferees of different ages.

:: Heterogeneity in the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population at different mobility distances.

 Data and methodology

 Data description


The data in this study come from the sixth national survey of the "China Family Tracking Survey" (CFPS) implemented by the China Center for Social Science Research (CCSR) of Peking University in 2020, and the sample covers 25 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, which is a good representation of the population. This study defines the agricultural transfer population from the perspective of both occupational transfer and geographical transfer, i.e., it includes the group with rural household registration whose current place of residence is in the countryside and who are engaged in non-agricultural work (occupational perspective), or the group with rural household registration whose current place of residence has changed to an urban area (geographical perspective). According to the core research content of "agricultural transfer population", "occupational mobility and subjective well-being", the data were processed and selected as follows, and after eliminating some missing and invalid samples, 2,378 valid samples were obtained.

措施

 subjective well-being


It consists of a combination of questions from the CES-D8 scale in CFPS2020 (both positive and negative affect) and a single question on life satisfaction. The eight questions on positive and negative affect were "I feel depressed, I find it hard to do anything, I don't sleep well, I feel happy, I feel lonely, I live a happy life, I feel sad, and I don't feel like I can go on with my life," with the six negative affect questions reverse-scored and summed to the scores for the two positive affect questions and averaged. The six negative emotion questions were reverse scored and summed with the two positive emotion question scores and the mean was calculated. The specific question on life satisfaction was "How satisfied are you with your life", which was scored from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). The subjective well-being scores are ultimately composed of the mean of the positive and negative affective means and the mean of the life satisfaction scores, with scores ranging from 1 to 5, in descending order of magnitude.

 Career mobility


Occupational mobility is categorized into direction of mobility, frequency of mobility and change of employment from the perspective of direction of mobility, occupational stability and mode of employment. The direction of occupational mobility is the mobility of the labor force from the first occupation to the current occupation, which is divided into upward mobility, no mobility (or parallel mobility) and downward mobility according to its direction of mobility. The method of measurement is based on the ISC0-88 International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISC0-88) code for each occupation in the questionnaire, which is then converted into the International Standard Occupational Status Index (ISEI), and then a continuous variable with values ranging from 16 to 90 is computed, in which the current occupational status of the respondent is subtracted from his/her initial occupational status value. There are two cases of occupational immobility, one of which is that the labor force does not undergo occupational changes, and the other is that there is a horizontal change in occupation, i.e., change of unit but not change of occupation, and because of this, there is no change in the assignment of the ISEI to this group of people. Therefore, this study also categorizes this type of parallel occupational mobility as occupational status immobility. Occupational mobility frequency refers to the number of recent occupational changes, measured by adding one to the number of new job starts since 2018. Employment transitions can be categorized into three types: from employed to self-employed, from self-employed to employed, and no employment transition.

 intermediary variable


Sense of relative deprivation. Using the "How would you rate the location of your income in the local area" and "How would you rate your social status in the local area?" Measured by the average of the

 moderator variable


Perceived future expectations. Data from the questionnaire "How confident do you feel about your future?" Score 1-5, from very unconfident to very confident.

 control variable


In order to accurately and effectively measure the impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being, this paper refers to the way of selecting control variables for subjective well-being in previous studies, and selects basic variables covering individual characteristics, family characteristics and regional characteristics. Individual characteristics include gender, age, education level, marital status, health status, participation in pension insurance, participation in medical insurance, Internet use, and interpersonal relationships; household characteristics include total household income, household mortgage, household size, and household liabilities; and regional characteristics include region and mobility distance.
 Research design
 Ordered Logit Model Setting

Since subjective well-being is a discrete ordered variable in the sample of this study , an ordinal selection model is generally used. In order to study

The impact of occupational mobility on subjective well-being, constructing the direct impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population Ordered Logit baseline model, the use of Ordered Logit model to test the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population. The model takes the following form.

Among them, Happiness is the explanatory variable, which represents subjective well-being; Transfrom is the core explanatory variable, which represents occupational mobility; Control is the control variables determined by reference to related literature, including individual characteristics, family characteristics and regional characteristics; is the error term.
 Bootstrap-based moderated mediated effects modeling

The mediating effect of relative deprivation and the moderating effect of perceived future expectations in the process of occupational mobility affecting subjective well-being were tested using the Bootstrap-based moderated mediation test proposed by Preacher et al. (2008). The model was set up as follows.

Where (2) is the direct effect of occupational mobility on subjective well-being, Eq. (3) is the effect of occupational mobility on the mediating variable relative deprivation, and Eq. (4) is the indirect effect of occupational mobility on subjective well-being through the perceived future expectations that moderates relative deprivation.
 Results and discussion
 Results of descriptive statistics

As can be seen from Table 1, the ages of the samples were mainly 18-59 years old, with 1,492 males and 886 females, 1,289 working in urban areas and 1,089 working in rural areas. The education level of the agricultural transfer population is generally low, and men are responsible for obtaining the main source of family income, and the number of those who are working and have career mobility is significantly higher than that of women. In terms of subjective happiness, most of the people in the sample are in a relatively happy state, with 1659 people being relatively happy or above, accounting for ; and 719 people being generally happy or below, accounting for . Among them, most of them are relatively happy with 1,287 people, and very happy with only 372 people. On the whole, the number of very happy people and very unhappy people is relatively small, and most of them are in the stage of comparative happiness and general happiness, which is in line with the current situation of subjective happiness of China's agricultural migrant population, but there is still much room for improvement. In terms of occupational mobility, there are 1,189 people without occupational mobility or parallel mobility, and 1,189 people with occupational mobility, including 665 people with upward occupational mobility and 524 people with downward occupational mobility. In terms of the frequency of mobility, the number of those who have not moved recently and those who have moved only once are 2010, accounting for . In terms of mode of employment, there were 2015 persons who had not changed their mode of employment and 363 persons who had changed their mode of employment. Among them, 202 people switched from self-employment to employment, and 161 people switched from employment to self-employment. Overall, the career mobility of the agricultural migrant population is a mixed picture. Thanks to the policy guarantee, the employment stability of the agricultural migrant population has been strengthened, but there are still few cases of downward career mobility.
 Table 1 Definition of variables
变量选取 变量说明
被解释变量 主观幸福感
Very happy More happy Fairly happy Less fortunate
核心解释变 职业流动方向
Fook Very unhappy

Upward flow No flow or parallel flow Downward flow
 Table 2 Descriptive Statistics
Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
主观幸福感 2,378 3.82 0.72 1 5
流动方向 2,378 2.06 0.70 1 3
流动频率 2,378 1.96 1.08 1 10
雇佣方式 2,378 1.98 0.39 1 3
性别 2,378 0.63 0.48 0 1
年龄 2,378 35.38 10.97 16 79
受教育程度 2,378 3.42 1.15 1 5
婚姆状况 2,378 0.65 0.48 0 1
健康状况 2,378 0.80 0.40 0 1
养老保险 2,378 0.63 0.48 0 1
医庁保险 2,378 0.88 0.32 0 1
人际关系情况 2,378 6.91 1.80 1 10
互联网使用情况 2,378 0.84 0.37 0 1
家庭总收入 2,378 12.32 0.89 1 16
家庭房贷 2,378 4.10 5.25 1 16
家庭人口数 2,378 4.18 2.14 1 15
家庭负债 2,378 0.26 0.44 0 1
地区 2,378 2.15 0.85 1 3
流动距离 2,378 1.91 1.33 1 5
相对剥夺感 2,378 2.82 0.86 1 5
未来预期感知 2,378 4.15 0.91 1 5
 Key findings

The regression results are shown in Table 3, from (I)-(VI) in order to add individual characteristics, family characteristics, regional control variables, the sign and significance of the coefficients of the results of the four equations are not significantly different, so they are combined and analyzed. The results show that the coefficient of mobility direction is significantly positive at the level of , indicating that mobility direction can have a significant positive effect on subjective well-being, i.e., upward mobility of occupations can significantly increase subjective well-being, and downward mobility of occupations can significantly decrease subjective well-being, which confirms hypothesis 1a. The coefficient of mobility frequency is significantly negative at the level of , indicating that the frequency of occupational mobility can have a significant negative effect on subjective well-being, i.e., the more frequent the occupational mobility, the worse the subjective well-being situation, hypothesis is confirmed. The coefficient of employment mode is significantly negative at the level of , indicating that the change of employment mode can have a significant negative impact on subjective well-being, i.e., the change from employment to self-employment will significantly reduce subjective well-being, and the hypothesis is confirmed. From the control variables, the coefficients of gender, age, marital status, health status, and human relationship are all significantly positive, which is because men are relatively optimistic in life, and are usually more likely to feel satisfied and happy than women. This is because men are more optimistic in life and are more likely to feel satisfied and happy than women. Older people have less stress in life and have a deeper understanding and experience of life as they grow older, which makes them more likely to be satisfied than younger people. People with spouses can help each other in life care and spiritual comfort, and those who are physically healthy suffer less from illnesses and pains and are usually in better spirits. Good interpersonal relationships can help the migrant workers expand their social networks and effectively solve their difficulties by obtaining help from others, thus enhancing their sense of belonging and subjective well-being. The coefficient of family debt is significantly negative, indicating that family debt will significantly reduce the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population.
 Table 3 Benchmark regression results
变量 有序 Logit 回归
(II) (III)
流动方向
流动频率
雇佣方式
性别
年龄
受教育程度
0.067
0.060
变量 有序 Logit 回归
( I ) (II) (III)
婚姻状况
健康状况
养老保险
-0.056
-0.064
-0.052
医疗保险
0.040
0.026
0.049
人缘关系情况
互联网使用情况
-0.110
-0.115
-0.116
家庭收入对数
0.071
房贷对数
-0.001
-0.001
家庭人口规模
0.008
0.016
家庭负债
地区
0.075
流动距离
-0.039
方 0.005 0.065 0.067 0.068
样本量 2378 2378 2378 2378

The value is inside the parentheses

Robustness check

 Replacement model

Table 4 Replacing the ordered probit model in the regression, the results show that the direction of mobility, frequency of mobility, and mode of employment significantly affect subjective well-being, and the direction of the effect is consistent with the baseline regression, indicating that the baseline regression findings are robust.
 Substitution of variables

Table 5 replaces the explanatory variables with binary 01 variables for "upward occupational mobility", "mobility frequency intensity", and "self-employed to employed"; Table 6 replaces the outcome variables with ordered numeric variables for "life satisfaction" and ordered 1-4 numeric variables for "positive and negative emotions". Table 6 replaces the outcome variables with regressions using the ordered numeric variable for "life satisfaction" and the ordered 1-4 numeric variables for "positive and negative emotions". The direction and significance of the regression results are consistent with those of the benchmark regression for both the ordered logit model and the ordered probit model, indicating that the findings of the benchmark regression are robust.
  Table 4 Robustness test results of the replacement model
变量 有序 probit 回归
流动方向
流动频率 {
}
雇佣方式
控制变量 --
方 0.068
样本量 2378
Undefined control sequence \(
生活满意度 正负情感
有序 logit 回归 有序 probit 回归 有序 logit 回归 有序 probit
流动方向
流动频率
雇佣方式
控制变量 -- -- -- --
方 0.066 0.064 0.068 0.068
样本量 2378 2378 2378 2378

The value is inside the parentheses
 Table 6 Robustness test results for the replacement of explanatory variables
有序 logit 回归 有序 probit 回归
职业向上流动
流动频率强度
自雇转受雇
有序 logit 回归 有序 probit 回归
控制变量 -- --
R 方 0.070 0.071
样本量 2378 2378

The value is inside the parentheses

 endogeneity test


Occupational mobility of the agricultural transfer population is a "self-selected" behavior, and the differences in their subjective well-being cannot be fully determined whether they are produced by occupational mobility, and they are also affected by the personal characteristics of the agricultural transfer population, family characteristics, regional characteristics, mobility characteristics, and the external environment and other factors. Therefore, we continue to use PSM to estimate and test the treatment effect of occupational mobility. In the selection of specific matching methods, in order to ensure the robustness of the measurement results, this study chooses the two matching methods of -nearest neighbor matching and radius matching.

Table 7 Matched samples between the experimental and control groups using the radius matching method with a radius of 0.01 and nearest neighbor matching. From the results of the balance test (see Table 4), it can be seen that after matching the samples, the standardized deviation of the explanatory variables decreases, and the total bias decreases significantly and is smaller than the red line criterion of specified in the balance test. Based on the analysis of the above test results, it can be seen that the use of propensity score matching can effectively reduce the differences in the distribution of the explanatory variables between the control group and the treatment group, and greatly reduce the estimation bias caused by sample self-selection.
 Table 7 Balance test results of explanatory variables before and after matching
变量 匹配方法 样本 实验组 控制组
标准化
偏差
(%)
减少幅
度
值 p 值
向上流
动
-- 匹配前 0.490 0.445 8.98 -- 1.964 0.050
半径匹配
(0.01)
匹配后 0.490 0.500 -1.60 82.24 -0.020 0.988
近邻匹配
匹配后 0.490 0.500 -1.89 78. 99 -0.051 0.960
高流动
频率
匹配前 0.486 0.453 6.75 -- 1.188 0.236
半径匹配
匹配
后
3.677 3.882 0.108 -1.906 0.058
近邻匹配
匹配
后
3.677 3. 772 0.082 -1.804 0.062
 Heterogeneity analysis results

The above analysis reveals that good occupational mobility does significantly enhance the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, and this effect may be heterogeneous. In order to further clarify the heterogeneity of the effect of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, this study distinguishes the sample into age and mobility distance, and utilizes the ordered logit regression method for estimation. The reason for choosing age and mobility distance as the criteria for the classification is that age and mobility distance are often correlated with occupational mobility and subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population.

 1. Age heterogeneity


In the traditional analytical perspective, the explanation of heterogeneity is often limited to the distinction between old and new migrant workers. With the passage of time, this way of classifying the age structure of the agricultural migrant population based on a fixed year (1980) is less and less in line with the needs of reality. Therefore, in order to meet the objective reality, this study reclassifies the age structure of the agricultural transfer population into young (16-29 years old), middle-aged (30-49 years old), and senior (50 years old and above), and analyzes the difference of the influence of occupational mobility on the agricultural transfer population in different age stages. From the estimation results in Table 9, the effect of upward career mobility on subjective well-being is more obvious in young and middle-aged people, while it is not significant in old age, which may be due to the fact that young and middle-aged people are in the struggle stage of their career, and they have higher expectations for career development and promotion. The inhibitory effect of career mobility frequency on subjective well-being is more significant in the young population, but not in the middle-aged and the old population, which may be related to the relative lack of work experience and poorer tolerance of young people. Frequent job changes may bring more psychological pressure to them and affect their subjective well-being. The inhibitory effect of employment change on subjective well-being is more significant among the elderly population, which may be due to the fact that the elderly population tends to have less energy and ability to adapt to new environments. For older agricultural migrants, the shift from employment to self-employment may mean having to cope with changes in the new work environment, work pace and work pressure. This transition may be a challenge for many older people to adapt to the changes brought by self-employment, which may lead to a decrease in their subjective well-being. In summary, the hypothesis is confirmed.
 Table 9 Analysis of age heterogeneity
青年 中年 老年
流动方向 0.186
流动频率 -0.041 -0.159
雇佣方式 -0.186 -0.089
控制变量 -- -- --
青年 中年 老年
样本量 853 1180 345

The value is inside the parentheses

 2. Flow distance heterogeneity


While traditional research focuses on the actual mobility distance of the agricultural migrant population, this paper compares the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population and its impacts on the differences between those who migrate near and those who do not from the perspective of geographic mobility. This paper explores the causes of the differences, and further examines the problems associated with the future transfer of agricultural migrants in different directions (urban or rural) and provides targeted recommendations. To this end, the samples are grouped into proximity (rural) and non-proximity (urban) according to the distance of mobility. According to the estimation results in Table 10, upward occupational mobility has a significant effect on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population at different mobility distances. The inhibitory effect of the frequency of occupational mobility on subjective well-being is more obvious for the rural agricultural transfer population, which may be due to the differences in the employment environment between urban and rural areas, the diversity of job opportunities in urban areas and the possibility of choosing from a variety of choices, and the flexibility of employment in urban areas, which may alleviate the impact of frequent occupational mobility on the individual's psychology, and thus does not necessarily have a negative impact on subjective well-being; on the other hand, the rural agricultural transfer population is in the "acquaintance society", which is not a "society of acquaintances". On the contrary, the rural agricultural migrants are in the "familiar society", they are more vulnerable to the evaluation and comparison of people around them, and their subjective well-being is reduced due to the limitation of regional economic development, limited job positions, and the continuous reduction of job choices. The inhibitory effect of employment transition on subjective well-being is more pronounced among the urban agricultural migrants, probably due to the fact that the work environment and social interactions faced by the urban agricultural migrants in their transition from employment to self-employment are more complex than those in the rural areas where their lifestyles are familiar. These factors may increase psychological and life stress, leading to a decrease in subjective well-being.
 Table 10 Heterogeneity analysis of flow distances
非就近转移 就近转移
流动方向
流动频率 -0.072
雇佣方式 -0.114
控制变量 -- --
样本量
1089 1289

The value is inside the parentheses
 mediation effect test

This paper further analyzes the mediating mechanism of occupational mobility affecting the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population, and the test results are reported in Table 11. First of all, each situation of occupational mobility has a significant impact on subjective well-being, and the direction of the impact is similar to that of the baseline regression.

Secondly, after adding the mediating variable of relative deprivation, the direction of mobility has a significant negative effect on relative deprivation, and the frequency of mobility and the mode of employment have a significant positive effect on relative deprivation; finally, relative deprivation has a significant negative effect on subjective well-being. It can be seen that upward career mobility increases subjective well-being by decreasing relative deprivation, while frequent career mobility and changing from self-employment to employment increases relative deprivation and decreases subjective well-being, indicating that relative deprivation plays a mediating role in the influence of career mobility on subjective well-being, and Hypothesis 2 is confirmed.
 Table 11 Results of the mediation effect test
第一步
主观幸福感
第二步
相对剥夺感
第三步
主观幸福感
流动方向
流动频率
雇佣方式
控制变量 已控制 已控制 已控制
相对剥夺感 ـ ـ
方 0.112 0.126 0.810
样本量 2378 2378 2378

The value is inside the parentheses

 Moderating effects and tests for mediating effects with moderation


Table 12 reports the estimation results of using the perception of future expectation as a moderator variable, the interaction terms of mobility direction, mobility frequency, and employment mode are significantly positive at the level of 、、 , which indicates that the perception of future expectation can positively regulate the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population, i.e., agricultural migrant populations with higher future expectation, upward occupational mobility can enhance their subjective well-being to a greater extent, and the crowding-out effect of mobility frequency and employment mode change on subjective well-being has been somewhat weakened or even disappeared, verifying Hypothesis 3. The crowding out effect on subjective well-being is somewhat weakened or even disappeared, which verifies Hypothesis 3.
 Table 12 Moderated effects test results
主观幸福感
流动方向
流动方向*未来预期感知
流动频率
流动频率*未来预期感知
雇佣方式
雇佣方式*未来预期感知
未来预期感知
控制变量 已控制 已控制 已控制
方 0.227 0.166 0.143
样本量 2378 2378 2378

The value is inside the parentheses

Further, the Bootstrap method was used to test the moderated mediation effect, in order to further analyze the effect size and significance of the mediating variable relative deprivation under the moderation of perception of future expectations. The mean value of perceived future expectancy plus or minus one standard deviation was used as the grouping criterion to obtain the three groupings of low, average and high levels. As shown in Table 13, the mediating effect of relative deprivation was significant at the average and high levels, but not at the low level; the mediating effect of relative deprivation was significant at the low and average levels, but not at the high level; and the mediating effect of relative deprivation was significant at the low level, but not at the average and high levels, with respect to the mode of employment. The mediating effects are not consistent across levels, suggesting that the perception of future expectations has a moderating mediating effect. In addition, the Index value of the moderated mediation effect model again verifies the validity of the moderated mediation effect model. The above results indicate that when the agricultural migrants have different levels of future expectations, there is a difference in the mediating effect of occupational mobility on subjective well-being through relative deprivation, i.e., there is a moderated mediating effect. Hypothesis 4 of the study was verified.
 Table 13 Moderated mediation effect test
核心
中介
变量
条件 条件间接效应 有调节的中介
效应 95%置信区间
Etex
Index
值
标准误 下限 上限
系数 标准误 下限 上限 显著性
流动 低水平 -0.001 0.023 -0.043 30.044 不显著 0.090 0.036 0.014 0.149
平均值 0.038 0.014 0.014 0.067 显著
相对 高水平 0.080 0.021 0.041 0.118 显著
流动
剥夺
感
低水平 -0.034 0.009 -0.050 显著
0.002 业口, 0.010 0.000 0.007 -0.001
高水平 -0.002 0.009 -0.016 60.016 不显著
雇佣
方式
低水平 -0.015 0.010 -0.035 显著 0.106 0.070 0.033 0.264
核心
解释
变量
条件间接效应 有调节的中介
条件 效应 35%置信 言区间
系数 标准误 下限 上限 显著性
Index
值
标准误 下限 上限
平均值 -0.003 0.006 -0.013 0.008 不显著
高水平 0.005 0.006 -0.002 0.019 不显著
 Conclusion and discussion
结论

Based on the data from the 2020 China Household Tracking Survey, this paper analyzes the current situation of occupational mobility and subjective well-being of China's agricultural migrant population in the context of gradually realizing common wealth, and reveals the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population, and explores the mediating role of relative deprivation and the moderating role of perceived future expectations, and further analyzes the heterogeneity of the impacts among different groups, thus drawing the following conclusions. We further analyze the heterogeneity of the effects among different groups, and come to the following conclusions. First, the education level of the agricultural transfer population is generally low, and the male agricultural transfer population is the first one to obtain the economic resources of the family, and the frequency of occupational mobility is obviously larger than that of the female. The agricultural transfer population is generally in the stage of comparative happiness and general happiness, and there is much room for improvement of subjective happiness. Occupational mobility of the agricultural transfer population is mixed, thanks to the policy protection, employment stability has increased, but the downward mobility of occupation is still not rare. Secondly, through the benchmark regression, it can be concluded that the subjective well-being increases with every increase of 1 unit in the direction of occupational mobility ; the subjective well-being decreases with every increase of 1 unit in the frequency of occupational mobility ; and the subjective well-being decreases with every increase of 1 unit in the transition from employment to self-employment . Further analysis of the mechanisms of the effects of occupational mobility on subjective well-being reveals that relative deprivation and perceived future expectations play mediating and moderating roles in the effects of occupational mobility on subjective well-being, as well as the moderating and mediating role of perceived future expectations, respectively. Among the control variables, except for household debt, which is significantly negative, all other variables are significantly positive, and household debt can significantly reduce the subjective well-being of the agricultural migrants; through the methods of replacing the model, replacing the explanatory variables, the explanatory variables, and matching the propensity scores, it is found that the conclusions are still robust. Third, the samples are further categorized according to age and mobility distance, and the differences in the effects of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of agricultural migrants of different ages and mobility distances are examined separately. The heterogeneity results show that upward occupational mobility has a more significant effect on the subjective well-being of the young and middle-aged agricultural transfer population, high frequency mobility significantly reduces the subjective well-being of the young and rural agricultural transfer population, and moving from employment to self-employment significantly reduces the subjective well-being of the old and urban agricultural transfer population.

Based on the research contents and conclusions of this paper, the countermeasures proposed in this paper are as follows.
 (i) "People-oriented" and promoting new urbanization

From the level of subjective well-being, efforts should be made to build a new type of urbanization that is "people-oriented". We should enhance the degree of social inclusiveness, realize the equalization of basic public services, continuously satisfy the growing needs of different groups for survival and development, and create urban and rural communities in which multiculturalism coexists harmoniously and people live and work happily and colorfully.
 (ii) "Prioritizing employment" to achieve high-quality and full employment

At the level of occupational mobility, the first step is to satisfy the basic housing and employment needs of the agricultural transfer population, narrow the income gap between different industries and the nature of different establishments, and gradually raise the minimum wage and realize equal pay for work of equal value between the agricultural transfer population and urban residents. Encourage the employment and entrepreneurship of the agricultural transfer population, increase the implementation of the policy of guaranteed loans and interest rate subsidies for the agricultural transfer population, create a favorable development environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship, and promote entrepreneurship in order to promote employment.
（三）城乡融合推动一体化协调发展

The government and enterprises should do a good job in training and education to help the agricultural migrant population acquire relevant professional knowledge and skills, and strive for more opportunities for upward occupational mobility, so as to gradually switch to high-quality jobs. By optimizing the environment and mechanism of occupational mobility, the government should help the agricultural migrant population establish positive future expectations, reduce the sense of relative deprivation, adapt to occupational mobility, and achieve the positive goals of integrating into local life and work and enhancing subjective well-being.
 (iv) "Wealth for all", guaranteeing progressive and sustainable income growth

Countermeasures should be implemented according to the actual situation of different groups of agricultural migrants, providing career guidance and counseling services for young agricultural migrants and encouraging the career transition of middle-aged and senior agricultural migrants. Economically developed regions need to pay more attention to the quality of life and welfare of the agricultural migrants, and rural areas that are less developed should encourage rural entrepreneurship and innovation. Strengthening the economic ties between urban and rural areas, and smoothing the economic cycle between urban and rural areas, in order to realize common prosperity.
 Limitations and future directions

There are some limitations to this study. First, although this study uses the most recent data from the CFPS, it is several years old and may not be able to predict the current occupational mobility and subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population. These data are cross-sectional and cannot track the dynamics of occupational mobility and subjective well-being of the agricultural migrant population. In the future, the data will be expanded and examined in longitudinal and experimental (intervention) studies. Second, this paper only categorizes occupational mobility and does not specifically explore the different effects of specific levels of occupational mobility on subjective well-being. Future research could further explore this aspect. Third, this study only focuses on the impact of occupational mobility on the subjective well-being of the agricultural transfer population, ignoring other negative factors that may impair subjective well-being. In future research, more influential factors and effective models will be explored. In addition, these findings are only based on a sample from China, and further research is needed to determine their applicability to migrant populations in other countries.