Dr. Huang’s research focuses on housing, migration and neighborhood change in China as well as in the U.S. and U.K. Her research helps to clarify the similarities and differences between residential processes in China and in Western societies as well as the significance of the transition to a post-socialist regime. In a recent paper in Housing Studies, for example, she and her co-author model longitudinal changes in residential mobility in 20 Chinese cities. They find that housing tenure has different effects over time, reflecting the changes in the Chinese housing system, while factors such as changes in marital status and work units have consistent effects on mobility over time, reflecting the persistence of the socialist housing system. Overall housing mobility has been increasing recently. While these results share similarities with Western models, the role of the state is more important to understanding housing mobility in China. Since local governments also had different policies during the transition, these led to cross-city variations in housing behavior as well. In a paper in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research using the same data, Huang studies housing tenure transitions in the socialist era and in the early part of the market transition and finds that the former system favored households with higher socioeconomic status, resulting in lower rates of homeownership among older married people. In the reform era, the dynamics differ, with crowding and long exposure to the rental market encouraging the transition to homeownership while marital status, work unit and previous housing tenure are no longer important. Her work on China also focuses specifically on Beijing and the urban sprawl resulting from uneven land reform policies there. A new theme in her work on housing issues in China concerns gated communities. In a recent book chapter, she relates them to the former location of housing in work compounds and finds them linked to an emerging pattern of residential segregation by socioeconomic status.
Huang’s research extends beyond her focus on China to housing behaviors in the U. S. and the U. K. With William A.V. Clark, she coauthored a paper in Geographical Analysis that shows how race affects residential relocation and commuting pattern, finding that both blacks and whites in Atlanta move closer to work whenever possible. Both blacks and whites also tend to move into more integrated neighborhoods after residential relocation. Black households, however, face a trade-off between neighborhood socio-economic status and commuting distance, with those choosing high socio-economic status neighborhoods having longer commutes. In another coauthored paper, this time in Population, Space and Place, these authors analyze how women in Britain adjust their labor-market behavior following a family migration, as the latter is often triggered by life-cycle events that could affect labor-force behavior as well. This analysis follows from their article in Regional Studies linking long- and short-distance moves, which showed that, contrary to expectations, a short-distance adjustment after a long-distance move is not the norm and that repeat movers account for many of these moves. This study also demonstrated that moves of both types were heavily embedded in life-course decisions.
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Huang currently has a revised R03 proposal to study market transition, housing reform and the social-spatial transformation in Chinese cities under consideration at NIH and a revised Career Award to study housing inequality and residential segregation in Beijing under review at NSF. She is working on a paper on housing inequality and residential segregation in Beijing using the latest 2000 census data and the tools of spatial analysis.
Huang is interested primarily in the interaction between population behavior and geography. Her research has focused on housing and migration, and she has a regional interest in China. Methodologically, she often incorporates spatial perspectives and sophisticated modeling techniques into her demographic analysis. She collaborates closely with the steering committee of the Urban China Research Network.
Huang relies heavily on the Administrative Core for assistance with the submission and revision of grant proposals. She also intensively uses the computing infrastructure, statistical consultation, and information resources provided by the Center. Her work has been supported by a Junior Research Award from CSDA.