How Does the Renewal of Urban Villages Affect the Resettled Villagers’ Subjective Well-Being? A Case Study in Wuhan, China

Abstract

To achieve sustainable development, the improvement of villagers’ subjective well-being has become the main policy goal of urban village renewal. However, the mechanism of how urban village renewal affects subjective well-being remains untested in previous research. Utilizing the survey data on 414 resettled households in the urban village renewal through a random sample method in Wuhan, China, we adopted the intermediary model to test the mechanism of how urban village renewal affects the resettled villagers’ subjective well-being. We explored the contribution rate of each intermediary variable to subjective well-being through Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition and, consequently, proposed corresponding policy suggestions. The results show that the renewal of urban villages can improve the economic conditions, housing conditions, social security status, and living environments of residents and significantly enhance the subjective well-being of the resettled villagers and households. The multi-dimensional changes resulting from the renewal of urban villages increase subjective well-being through complete mediation. The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition results demonstrate that improvement of the living environment has the strongest influence on subjective well-being, with a contribution rate of 69.81%. In the future, the renewal of urban villages should focus on environmental improvement, protect neighborhood networks, and promote community engagement, so as to realize the sustainable redevelopment of urban villages.

1. Introduction

Urban renewal is a complex system, and the strategic activities needed to achieve the user-friendly social, economic, and environmental development of cities are a global issue for sustainable urban development [1]. Research into the effects of the implementation of urban renewal is a key focus in the field of sustainable development [2,3]. On the one hand, some scholars propose that urban renewal in developing countries has positive impacts on employment and poverty reduction [4,5]. On the other hand, some scholars claim that urban renewal is a gentrification process that seriously affects spatial justice and causes the displacement of vulnerable groups and social inequality [6,7]. In general, the current research discusses the sustainability of urban renewal from the perspective of macroeconomics, urban development, and the lives of residents to throw new light on the implementation effects of urban renewal. However, these studies focus more on the macro- or objective impacts of sustainable urban renewal but often ignore micro- or subjective impacts on residents. Thus, there is insufficient research on the relationship between the sustainability of urban renewal and the subjective well-being of residents.

In fact, the well-being of residents is regarded as the ultimate goal of sustainable development, and is also an important symbol reflecting the humanistic concept in urban planning. More precisely, it should satisfy the material needs of social life and arrange the use and distribution of human living space to solve urban issues such as environment, housing, education, and transportation and meet the demands of humanities to implement people-oriented purposes in urban planning and design projects [8,9]. It is evident that human well-being includes subjective and objective dimensions [10]. Objective well-being mainly assesses the satisfaction of human needs on large scales (e.g., national scales) based on indicators such as material resources (e.g., income, food, and housing) and social attributes (e.g., education, health, social networks, and connections) [11]. However, well-being is prone to be disregarded since there is no comprehensive and trustworthy well-being index for sustainable growth in the present national welfare measurement standards. Research into the impacts and drivers of socioeconomic and spatial disadvantage in Australia and Scotland both indicate that community participation in urban development positively impacts well-being, such as health, housing, employment, and livability [12,13]. Yang et al. also found that bottom-up and top-down urban redevelopment has different effects on gains and losses of well-being [14].

China, as one of the developing countries undergoing rapid transformation, regards “working for the happiness of the Chinese people” as the goal of government work and includes it in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Public policies in China are formulated and implemented with the residents’ sense of happiness as the main goal. To promote high-quality and sustainable development of urban areas, China has implemented urban renewal activities mainly in the form of “three old transformations”. Urban villages in China have a spatial form between urban and rural areas, and complex property rights, formed by the cost gap and development strategy difference between urban and rural land expropriations, have been of great concern in the renewal [15,16]. In this important initial stage of the 14th Five-Year Plan in China, how to simultaneously improve the efficiency of land utilization, promote the cultivation and upgrading of industries, and enhance the functional layout of the city, have become crucial issues in raising the new urbanization and high-quality development of urban areas, to achieve the ultimate goal of enhancing the residents’ sense of fulfillment, happiness, and safety.

There is ample academic research related to urban village renewal in China, ranging from renewal models and compensation equity to the living and welfare of the villagers [15,16,17,18]. Urban renewal policies have comprehensive and social effects, including changes in the lifestyles and well-being of urban villagers [19]. For instance, studies have demonstrated that the handling of social insurance and conversion in household registration can trigger changes in the social security status of resettled households in urban villages [14]. Yang and Cai [16] found that villagers’ housing assets became more obviously differentiated after urban renewal. Moreover, some scholars propose that, through the redevelopment of housing areas and public facilities land, urban redevelopment has reshaped the living environments of communities, changed the housing conditions, and reconstructed the social network relationships of the resettled households [20,21]. Based on this, we ask: “How does the implementation of urban village update policies affect the villagers’ well-being in urban villages?” and “Does this implementation affect villagers’ well-being through functional activities, such as changing their economic conditions?”. Few studies have investigated these questions.

Wuhan, as a mega-city in central China, started the land redevelopment of urban villages early, and over 80% of urban villages have been, or are being, transformed into urban communities, resulting in an accumulation of rich experiences in renewal and transformation [22]. In this context, the present study focused on Wuhan as an example to quantitatively analyze the well-being of households in urban villages before and after renewal and to explore the mechanisms of how urban village renewal affects villagers’ subjective well-being, which has enhanced our understanding of the relationship between urban village renewal and subjective well-being. Therefore, this study contributes to the application of humanistic concepts in urban design and planning to improve residents’ subjective well-being from perspective community participation and spatial disadvantage [9,12,13]. Furthermore, this research is of great significance for the formulation and improvement of urban village renewal and urban–rural quality development policies in China and similar developing countries.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The next section presents the conceptual framework of the impact of urban village renewal on subjective well-being. Section 3 introduces the data and the analysis model. This is followed by the empirical results in Section 4. The final section summarizes and discusses the findings and provides concluding remarks and policy implications.

2. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses

2.1. Displacement and Resettlement of Urban Village Renewal in China

Urban and rural redevelopment relocation policies in fast-growing cities of developing countries often include displacement and resettlement projects that are a substantial threat to informal settlements [23]. These countries initially implemented urban renewal to rebuild their urban image, attract investors, and promote economic growth [24]. Meanwhile, the impacts of displacement and resettlement on the macroeconomic and micro-livelihoods of resettled residents have received widespread attention [25]. Urban renewal in its “physical form” of slum clearance and infrastructure modernization has gradually been replaced by environmental, cultural, and other upgrades in recent years [26]. The research on urban renewal is gradually shifting towards assessing the macro-impact of urban renewal on the economy, society, and environment from the perspectives of public–private collaboration and cultural and heritage protection, etc. However, there is less focus on the micro-impact of urban renewal on the livelihood and subjective well-being of resettled households, which deviates from the people-oriented sustainable development goals of urban renewal. Therefore, this study analyzes the micro-impact mechanism of urban village renewal from the perspective of the resettled residents, thus, aiming to contribute to sustainable development.

Urban villages in China are a mixed product of urban–rural dual systems. The long-term existence of urban villages not only leads to a series of landscape and environmental problems such as chaotic land plots and crowded building environments, of which the negative impacts, in particular, have been widely discussed, but also leads to negative consequences such as threats to public safety, hindering urbanization, and frequent social conflicts [27]. Similar to clearing the slums in many developing countries, the redevelopment of urban village land has become increasingly popular in major cities in China due to its ability to promote local economic growth and improve the performance of local officials [28]. Meanwhile, as a policy tool in line with the market-oriented reform of land-use rights, urban village renewal has become the main method for redeveloping the existing construction land in the context of new urbanization.

The redevelopment of urban villages is a displacement and resettlement activity that optimizes the allocation of land resources and industrial functional layout. The essence of land redevelopment in urban village renewal is the redistribution of land property rights, which mainly includes changes in the subject of land property rights, conversion of land use functions, and improvement of land use intensity on land having a high value-added income [29]. Collective land is expropriated by the government during the renewal of urban villages, and the property rights are converted from collective-owned to state-owned. The renewal of urban villages is the main way to improve the utilization efficiency of existing construction land, so the intensity of land redevelopment is significantly higher after urban village renewal than the original land use intensity. The scale allocation and redevelopment intensity of different land types are directly related to the balance of interests among the participating parties in urban village renewal [30].

Empirical studies have shown that the impact of land redevelopment in urban village renewal on resettled households can be reflected in different dimensions, such as whether there has been improvement or enhancement in housing conditions and the neighborhood environment (neighborhood relations, greening level, community infrastructure, and surrounding infrastructure, etc.), as well as the socioeconomic conditions of resettled households (psychological, economic, and social security, etc.) [14,31]. On the one hand, the livelihood capital of resettled households has increased due to the dividends generated by urban village renewal villagers and high rents [1]. The appreciation of housing wealth has improved the socioeconomic status of resettled households, which has further enhanced subjective well-being [15]. On the other hand, urban village renewal may lead to the large-scale relocation of displaced tenants within the urban area, resulting in new development pressures and a decrease in environmental conditions in peripheral areas [32]. Urban village renewal has not preserved the traditional social relationships and networks of local villagers [33].

2.2. The Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses

In recent years, subjective well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction have been used to measure overall well-being and are considered to be closely related [34]. This paper chooses subjective well-being from a questionnaire survey for further research. Subjective well-being refers to the subjective evaluation of residents’ lives and the performance of policy implementation in the objective process of social development and policy implementation, which includes happiness and satisfaction with life [35,36]. Some scholars express the opinion that the terms happiness and subjective well-being could be used interchangeably [37,38]. Achieving subjective well-being is not only considered one of the primary goals of an individual’s life but has also become a major objective of public policies in various countries, especially in urban and rural development policies [39]. Subjective well-being is likely to be affected by urban renewal policy implementation through the mediating role of changing micro-states or behaviors of urban villagers [40]. Subjective well-being can be an evaluation index for the effects of policy implementation from the perspective of farmers and can accurately measure the final effect of the role of various factors in an urban renewal policy. However, few studies have provided a rigorous and systematic assessment of the effects of urban renewal on subjective well-being.

The impact of policy implementation on subjective well-being often depends on the changes in the objective living conditions of individuals or households before and after policy deployment [41,42]. The “capability theory”, which has been widely influential in objective welfare, provides an analytical framework and a perspective from which to study subjective welfare. Therefore, the analytical framework of Amartya Sen’s capability theory has been applied to analyze the effects of policy implementation on subjective welfare. The theory advocates that capability should be evaluated according to the acquisition of valuable functional activities rather than the degree of owning commodities or psychological perceptions of life (some utilities can be seen as well-being, including satisfaction and happiness, etc.). The analytical framework links objective living conditions with subjective well-being through functional activities in the capability theory and serves as a mediating variable between policy implementation and the effects on well-being [43]. Therefore, this paper proposes an analytical framework of “urban village renewal policy implementation–functional activities–subjective well-being”.

The urban redevelopment involves policies including the redevelopment of land in urban villages, reforms of the village collective economic organizations (villagers become shareholders), household registration conversion (from an agricultural hukou to an urban hukou), “checungaiju” (village committees become neighborhood committees), and social insurance handling (Figure 1). In Wuhan, the urban village land is divided into displacement construction land, development land, industrial land, and public welfare land for redevelopment. The redevelopment of displacement construction land in urban villages directly affects the structure, quality, and decoration of resettled housing. The redevelopment of construction land and industrial land affects the economic conditions of resettled households through the housing property income and the collective economic dividend income. The government has significantly improved the living environment through the redevelopment of public facility land and basic supporting facilities. The household registration conversion of urban villages will be accompanied by improvements in social security [44]. The displacement and resettlement of urban village renewal will lead to changes in the social relationships of families who have been restored. Therefore, urban village renewal may affect subjective well-being through changes in the different welfare dimensions of resettled households, such as the housing, environment, social security, and income of resettled households [14]. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 is proposed:

H1: 

Urban village renewal affects villagers’ subjective well-being through the mediating role of changes in functional activities such as economic conditions, housing conditions, living environment, social security, and social relationships of urban villagers.

Economic conditions are considered one of the most significant factors affecting subjective well-being. Welfare economics has shown a positive relationship between “income” and “well-being” [45]. From this theory, it is evident that the higher the income, the happier the people will be. An ever-increasing disposable income has led Chinese people to strive to be happier, including through a stronger focus on spiritual enjoyment and subjective well-being [46]. Some studies have indicated that urban village renewal has a beneficial impact on the income, especially the property income, of resettled households in urban villages [1]. According to this, Hypothesis H_a is proposed:

H_a: 

Urban village renewal raises the subjective well-being of resettled households by raising the economic level.

Housing conditions, one of the most important factors, are associated with subjective well-being. Better housing conditions lead to better well-being. Factors such as housing quantity, housing area, and housing value affect the residents’ subjective well-being [47]. Housing wealth can be built by the transformation of land ownership in urban village renewal and the market-oriented reform of China’s urban housing markets. Property exchange allows the residents to have the right to sell their houses in the future and brings a positive wealth effect, which increases the housing wealth of resettled households [48]. Some studies have shown that many residents are satisfied with urban village renewal because of their improved housing situations [49]. Therefore, this study proposes Hypothesis H_b:

H_b: 

Urban village renewal may promote villagers’ subjective well-being through the improvement of housing conditions.

Public transfers are greatly important social security measures to ensure and improve people’s livelihoods and promote social equity and justice institutions. Social security plays a crucial role in improving the well-being of residents, with commercial pension insurance and medical insurance notably influencing well-being. By purchasing social insurance, especially pension insurance, residents’ well-being and sense of access are both increased [50]. In the process of urban village renewal, social security-related measures have been enacted by local governments, including household registration reform and social insurance processing. Additionally, urban household registration is granted to villagers in urban villages, which ensures that they have the same access to pensions, welfare, and job opportunities as urban residents. Based on this, Hypothesis H_c is proposed:

H_c: 

Urban village renewal enhances villagers’ subjective well-being through the provision of social security measures.

At present, individuals’ social capital structure is dominated by instrumental social relationships in China, which refers to interactions between people based on “nurture”, including geopolitical and karmic relationships [51]. Social relationships extend their impact on well-being across the lifespan, from initial attachment generation to the supportive coping often required in life. After urban village renewal, resettled households aspire to maintain their original social networks. However, urban redevelopment disrupts original social networks and social support systems. It is apparent that the gentrification process replaces the lower-income classes in the city center with the middle and upper-income classes, which can lead to a deterioration of resettled villages’ social relationships [52,53]. Therefore, this study proposes Hypothesis H_d:

H_d: 

Urban village renewal may induce deterioration in social relationships and thus negatively affect the subjective well-being of the villagers.

The living environment encompasses the natural ecological environment, the physical built environment, and the social environment. Significant improvements will be made to the dirty and disorganized environments, and domestic sewage and waste pollution will be managed. Investments in the construction of infrastructure will be increased by governments to meet the living needs of resettled households, such as transportation, environmental protection, and water supply. Villagers’ well-being is strengthened through physical renewal and the advancement in infrastructural facilities, as well as through social environment improvements, such as public security [54,55]. A livable environment generates higher life satisfaction and well-being, and community amenities also contribute to villagers’ well-being [56]. Therefore, this study proposes Hypothesis H_e:

H_e: 

Urban village renewal will promote subjective well-being by improving the living environment.

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, economic conditions and housing conditions are basic physiological needs, securing food and sleep for the residents. Economic conditions, as a vital source for securing food, should be utilized as the base tier, taking precedence over other factors of well-being. Housing status is added to the model as the second tier. Social security, belonging to security needs, is included as a third-tier mediating variable, where people want to have secure jobs or participate in various types of insurance. Social relationships, which reflect people’s social needs, are in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and are regarded as a mediating variable in the fourth tier. On top of satisfying basic physiological, safety, and social needs, residents begin to develop self-respect, cognitive, aesthetic, and self-fulfillment needs. As stated above, the living environment is situated as the last level independent variable in the hierarchy regression because it reflects urban villagers’ aesthetic needs for their environment.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Study Area

Wuhan, the largest metropolitan area in Central China, is the capital city of Hubei Province. As one of the mega-cities in China, Wuhan had a population of 13.74 million in 2022, with an urbanization rate of 84.66%. During the high-speed urbanization process in Wuhan, many urban villages have been formed. Official data show that 162 urban villages, including 147 administrative villages and 15 agriculture and forestry units (AFU), occupy an area of 221.4 km². In 2003, Wuhan ranked first in terms of the number and scale of urban villages [16]. Since the urban village renewal implemented in Wuhan in 2004, it has mainly focused on the demolition and reconstruction of the urban villages, including the surrounding land of urban villages, which has a certain typicality and representativeness.

Urban village renewal has attracted great attention from the government and has achieved remarkable results through pilot projects and comprehensive promotion in Wuhan. By 2004, 147 urban village renewal projects for a total land area of 210 km² and a population of 350,000 had been initiated in Wuhan. By the end of 2013, 83 urban villages had been renewed, with a total demolished housing area of 40.3 km² and 90,000 displaced households. From 2015 to 2020, 49 village projects in the inner city had been awaiting completion under the goal of urban renewal.

In Wuhan, the government allocates various types of land to stakeholders in different ways for redevelopment in the urban village renewal process. The development land is bundled with projects and sold to real estate developers with the land use conversion to commercial or residential purposes; thus, resettlement houses are built by the real estate developers or the village collective economic organizations themselves in a bottom-up renewal mode. The land use title of the resettlement houses is converted to resettled households of the urban village in the above situation. Industrial land is allocated to village-collective economic organizations based on the population ratio for redevelopment, and the land use title is transformed into a restructured collective economic joint-stock company. The public welfare land is organized by the municipal and district governments for land redevelopment, and the construction funds come from the land transfer fees and value-added income of the development land.

The livelihoods and welfare of resettled residents are not ignored in the process of housing reconstruction. The renewal of urban villages in Wuhan provided a typical experience for the rest of the country. The survey was implemented in eight resettlement areas, which were incorporated into two projects, S and L, respectively, in Hanyang District, Wuhan City (Figure 2). Project S included six resettled communities (Shilimeigui, Shilijingxiu, Shijilongcheng, Tieqiaoxinjiayuan, Longyangyayuan, and Longyangyuyuan), and Project L included Liyuzhoujiayuan and Liyuelongmen. The research projects have certain common characteristics in terms of geographical transportation, living environment, and resettlement types, such as adopting a combination of housing replacement and monetary compensation, as well as a centralized on-site resettlement method. Compensation was in the form of in-kind compensation (that is, housing property exchange determined by the area of housing), as well as monetary compensation. The housing compensation policies implemented in Project S were mainly chosen housing areas as the compensation base, with upper limit restrictions on compensation in registered residence, area, or population compensation, while the housing compensation policies implemented in Project L were mainly based on family population.

3.2. Data Sources

In July 2019, questionnaires were offered to a random sample of approximately 10% of the total resettled households in eight rehousing areas in Hanyang District, Wuhan City. The survey was provided by well-trained members of the research team. When completing the questionnaire, interviewers explained the options to interviewees to make sure that they could understand and respond accurately. In consideration of sensitivity and privacy, it was hard to conduct random interviews individually. Therefore, respondents were interviewed in person and at random at the community public space, using standardized questionnaires, each for 40 to 60 min. Random means that we chose the last one out of every five people we met. A total of 425 questionnaires were obtained, and of these, 414 were considered valid. The survey questionnaire mainly covered basic information about resettled households in urban villages and basic characteristics of demolition and relocation compensation. Specifically, it included villagers’ subjective well-being, economic conditions, social relationships, physical conditions and infrastructure, psychological conditions, community environment, livelihood and employment, and other multi-dimensional welfare indicators. Appendix A provides specific survey questionnaires.

A summary of the statistical analysis is shown in

Table 1. Descriptive statistical analysis of the survey sample.

Variables	Classification	Sample	Frequency Proportion	Variables	Classification	Sample	Proportion
Gender	Male	255	61.59	Village officials	Yes	11	2.66
	Female	159	38.41		No	403	97.34
Age grouping	30–45	16	3.86	Type of household registration	Agricultural households	216	52.17
	45–60	115	27.78		Agriculture to non-agriculture	128	30.92
	Over 60	283	68.36		Emigrated households	70	16.91
Education subgroup	Primary school and below	233	56.28	Family size	1–2 person	91	21.98
	Junior high school	122	29.47		3-person	85	20.53
	High school	46	11.11		4-person	74	17.88
	Tertiary and above	13	3.14		5-person	97	23.43
					More than 5 person	67	16.18

. The majority of the respondents were men, accounting for 61.59% of the total. The related characteristics are as follows: 68.360% of the respondents were over 60 years old, 27.78% were middle-aged (45–60 years old), and only 3.86% were aged 30–45 years. Most of the older respondents had lower educational attainment, resulting in 56.28% having a primary education or lower, with only 3.14% having received higher education. The households of the village cadres accounted for 2.66% of the renewal. The household characteristics showed that there was an obvious differentiation in household registration types, with agricultural households accounting for more than half of the households—up to 216 households—and 30.92% of households having converted from agriculture to non-agriculture, and only 70 “migrated” households. The family size varied significantly, with the largest number being three-member households and few households had more than five members. Due to the differences in ideology and economic capacity, most young and middle-aged people with higher compensation levels or incomes relocated to more high-end urban communities, and mostly elderly people were left in the resettlement communities. At the same time, many young people are not clear about the issues related to urban village renewal due to not participating in the negotiation and decision-making of demolition compensation. Therefore, the average age of original residents in the sampling survey was relatively high, and the proportion of elderly people was relatively large.

It is valid and reliable to adopt the five Richter subscales to measure subjective well-being. Subjective well-being, as the most vital variable, is obtained through the questionnaires and is expressed on Likert’s five-point scale ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). As evident from Figure 3, the distribution of villagers’ subjective well-being is shown before and after urban village renewal. None of the villagers self-measured as very low. The results show that a higher level of well-being was more likely after renewal. Specifically, the proportion of households with “general” subjective well-being before renewal is as high as 62.08% (Figure 3). After the renewal, the number of households with moderate subjective well-being decreased sharply, and subsequently, the proportion of the “high” sample increased, perhaps as a result of the increase in the original “fair” level of happiness to the “high” level after the renewal. Only 25.12% of households in the urban villages assessed their well-being as “high” before the renewal, while this percentage increased to 55.80% after the renewal. It is also noted that after renewal, the self-measured percentage of “very high” households has a slight increase from 6.28% to 8.70%.

3.3. Methodology

3.3.1. The Ordered Probit Model

Ordered probit models are useful methods for understanding multiple choices, such as happiness or preference. When the dependent variable has more than two values with natural order, the ordered probit model is a more appropriate estimation model. The dependent variable, subjective well-being, is divided into five levels, which belong to the ordered qualitative variable. Therefore, this study uses the ordered probit model to analyze the impact of urban village renewal on subjective well-being. The ordered probit model of y is derived from the potential variable model:

$$y^{*}=x\beta +{\epsilon }_i$$

(1)

where y is the dependent variable, namely, the subjective well-being of urban village residents, x are explanatory variables other than error, β is the regression coefficient, and ${\epsilon }_i$ indicates other unobservable factors.

The parameters obtained from the probability regression model are usually not regression coefficients but rather display the marginal coefficients of the variables. In the ordered probit model with different levels of well-being, the marginal effect of regression estimation is shown in Formula (2):

$$\begin{gathered} y=1\Rightarrow \frac{\partial P}{\partial x_k}\left(Y=1\left|x\right.\right)=-{\beta }_k\Omega \left({\alpha }_1-x\beta \right) \\ y=2\Rightarrow \frac{\partial P}{\partial x_k}\left(Y=2\left|x\right.\right)=-{\beta }_k\Omega \left({\alpha }_2-x\beta \right) \\ \mathit{y}=3\Rightarrow \frac{\partial P}{\partial x_k}\left(Y=3\left|x\right.\right)=-{\beta }_k\Omega \left({\alpha }_3-x\beta \right) \\ y=4\Rightarrow \frac{\partial P}{\partial x_k}\left(Y=4\left|x\right.\right)=-{\beta }_k\Omega \left({\alpha }_4-x\beta \right) \end{gathered}$$

(2)

Ω is the probability density function of normal distribution. The marginal effect measures the impact of unit changes in each explanatory variable on different levels of subjective well-being (X_ķ). The total marginal effects of the explanatory variable are 0. Therefore, when an explanatory variable has a greater impact on a certain level of subjective well-being, it shows a lower contribution rate compared to other levels of subjective well-being.

3.3.2. The Mediating Effects Model

In order to observe if the gradual addition of these variables to the mediating model is significant, the hierarchical regression method was chosen to verify the mediating effect. Hierarchical regression is based on the theoretical analysis of the independent variables to determine certain logical and hierarchical relationships and the gradual addition of the independent variables according to the logical relationships, comparing the model fit and the role of the independent variables, with more variance being explained by the model indicating a better fit to the data [29,57]. As we know, hierarchical regression can be applied to a variety of models, and the dependent variable subjective well-being is an ordered qualitative variable. Hence, a hierarchical regression model based on order probit was chosen to test for mediating effects in this paper:

$$\begin{gathered} y=cx+d_{1}Z+e_1 \\ M=ax+d_{2}Z+e_2 \\ y=\mathrm{c}’x+bM+d_{3}Z+e_3 \end{gathered}$$

(3)

where y is the dependent variable, namely, the subjective well-being of urban village residents. x denotes the independent variable, scilicet the variable of policy implementation in urban village renewal, with 0 indicating before urban village renewal and 1 indicating after renewal. Z represents the control variables, including personal and household characteristics. M is the mediating variable, including the economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, social relationships, and living environment of urban village households. In Equation (3), if the significance of c′ fails the test and b passes the significance test, then M shows a full mediating effect in the effect of x→y; if both c and b pass the significance test and the absolute value of c′ is smaller than the absolute value of $a$, then it is a partial mediating effect. In other cases, the mediating effect does not exist.

3.3.3. The Oaxaca–Blinder Decomposition Model

The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method was utilized by Oaxaca to explain gender wage differences in 1973, and the method has been widely applied to quantify the differences between groups and the contribution of influencing factors [58]. This decomposition method allows for the decomposition of differences between two groups into gaps in characteristics due to the discrepancy in endowments (the explainable part) and coefficients due to regression (the unexplainable part) [59]. This method was adopted to compare the differences in well-being between the two groups and the contribution of influencing factors before and after urban village renewal. The specific difference decomposition principles are shown below:

$$\begin{array}{ll}D& =E({{\displaystyle subjectivewell-being}}_0)-E{{\displaystyle (subjectivewell-being}}_1)\\ & ={{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_0{{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_0-{{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_1{{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_1\\ & =({{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_0{{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_0-{{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_1{{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_1)\\ & =\underset{\mathit{explainable}}{\underbrace{({{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_0-{{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_1){{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_N}}-\underset{\mathit{unexplainable}}{\underbrace{{{\displaystyle \overline{X}}}_0({{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_0-{{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_1)}}\end{array}$$

(4)

where ${{\displaystyle subjectivewell-being}}_0$ and ${{\displaystyle subjectivewell-being}}_1$ denote the subjective well-being before and after urban village renewal, respectively. $\overline{{{\displaystyle X}}_0}$ and $\overline{{{\displaystyle X}}_1}$ represent the mean values of the independent variables before and after urban village renewal, respectively. ${{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_0$ and ${{\displaystyle \widehat{\beta }}}_1$ signify the before and after urban village renewal coefficient estimates, respectively.

3.3.4. Variables

The control variables can be divided into individual characteristics and household characteristics. In the same setting, most respondents have demographic differences in subjective well-being when it comes to gender, ethnicity, age, and education [36]. For instance, village cadres may have higher levels of happiness and more resources and respect because of their position. The socioeconomic characteristics that differ between individuals may act on well-being during the urban village redevelopment process. Therefore, this study analyzes the effect of urban village renewal on well-being by controlling individual characteristics, including demographic and socioeconomic variables, such as age, gender, education, and whether or not they are village cadres.

The household control variables included family size and types of household registration. Family size not only affects the housing compensation of some households in the urban villages but may influence villagers’ well-being through different demographic structures. This study, therefore, utilized family size as one of the control variables for subjective well-being. Some research proposes that the subjective well-being of residents with urban households is significantly higher than that of residents without urban household registration [60]. Remarkable differences in well-being have come into being owing to differentiated policies on housing compensation and share dividends for households with different household registration types, such as agricultural households in urban villages, agricultural to non-agricultural households, and migrated households. Therefore, this paper adopted the household registration type as one of the control variables to study subjective well-being. In the mediating variables, the economic conditions were expressed as household-equivalent income per capita. Housing status was selected as a number of relevant factors affecting housing value and satisfaction with the residence. Social security status was mainly reflected in employment, health care, and pension insurance, and four correlated factors were chosen: the proportion of transferable income, the availability of social insurance, job stability, and wage satisfaction. The study of social relationships involves social networks and community participation [21], and three factors were selected: the number of relatives and friends, the degree of knowledge of others in the residential district, and the degree of community participation [20,61]. In the residential environment, 12 factors, including the natural environment, physical environment, and socio-cultural environment, were selected for principal component analysis. We tested the structural validity of each dimension, and the other four factors passed the KMO test and Bartlett’s spherical test, except for economic conditions, which did not require principal component analysis.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of multi-dimensional influences on well-being.

	Factor	Before Renewal	After Renewal	Variable Descriptions
Economic conditions	Equivalent income per capita	2.88	6.24	Continuous variables (104 yuan)
Housing situation	Housing area	451.24	390.56	total household housing area (square meters)
	Unit price of house	4908	11,828	market unit price around the house (yuan)
	Number of houses	1.16	3.91	number of houses owned by households (units)
	Housing location	3.02	3.52	1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = fair, 4 = good, 5 = very good
	Housing quality	3.16	3.54
	Level of decoration	3.07	3.52
	Housing structure	2.87	4.94
Social security	Percentage of transfer income	5.40	8.33	indicating the proportion of household transfer income to total household income (%)
	Social security	0.88	1.00	1 = covered by social security; 0 = not covered by social security
	Job stability	2.96	3.02	1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = fair, 4 = good, 5 = very good
	Wage satisfaction	2.90	3.17
Social relations	Number of relatives and friends	3.45	3.19	1 ≤ 4, 2 = 5–10, 3 = 10–15, 4 = 15–20, 5 = ≥21
	Understanding level to others	3.20	2.68	1 = very low, 2 = low, 3 = fair, 4 = high, 5 = very high
	Degree of community participation	1.98	1.84
Living environment	Road traffic facility	2.58	3.84	1 = very poor, 2 = poor, 3 = fair, 4 = good, 5 = very good
	Education facility	2.73	3.94
	Supermarkets	2.71	4.02
	Medical facilities	2.72	3.94
	Water and electricity facility	3.00	3.58
	Greenery satisfaction	2.74	3.82	1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = Somewhat dissatisfied, 3 = Neither dissatisfied nor satisfied, 4 = Somewhat satisfied, 5 = very satisfied
	Noise satisfaction	2.93	3.37
	Air satisfaction	2.88	3.43
	public order satisfaction	2.89	3.56

presents the types of variables and their meanings, as well as the mean values of these variables before and after urban village renewal. All other variables increased except the three indicators in the social relationships dimension.

4. Results

4.1. The Direct Effects of Urban Village Renewal on Subjective Well-Being

The estimation results of the ordered probit model and marginal effect shown in

Table 3. The direct effects of subjective well-being in urban village renewal.

Variables	Order Probit	Marginal Effects of Subjective Well-Being (dy/dx)
		Low	Fair	High	Very High
Renewal	0.6893 *** (7.7449)	−0.0957 *** (−6.5479)	−0.1727 *** (−7.3803)	0.1915 *** (7.5059)	0.0769 *** (6.2016)
Gender	0.0094 (0.0767)	−0.0013 (−0.0778)	−0.0025 (−0.0781)	0.0027 (0.0763)	0.0010 (0.0752)
Age	0.0049 (1.256)	−0.0007 (−1.4)	−0.0013 (−1.3)	0.0014 (1.2727)	0.0005 (1.2500)
Education	−0.0081 (−0.648)	0.0011 (0.6471)	0.0021 (0.6364)	−0.0023 (−0.6389)	−0.0009 (−0.6429)
Village cadres	0.0497 (0.2063)	−0.0065 (−0.2131)	−0.0132 (−0.2015)	0.0142 (0.2091)	0.0056 (0.1993)
Type of household registration	0.0081 (0.1588)	−0.0011 (−0.1594)	−0.0021 (−0.1579)	0.0023 (0.1565)	0.0009 (0.1636)
Family size	0.0504 *** (1.9535)	−0.0068 * (−1.8889)	−0.0132 * (−1.9412)	0.0145 * (1.9333)	0.0055 * (1.9643)

Note: Level of significance: * p < 0.1; *** p < 0.01.

distinctly indicate that urban village renewal acts positively on villagers’ subjective well-being. The results show that the renewal of urban villages has a significant impact on the subjective well-being of resettled households. In other words, after the renewal of urban villages, the subjective well-being of the resettled households has improved. The results also show that there is a positive correlation between family size and subjective well-being, meaning that the larger the family size, the higher the subjective well-being.

4.2. Tests of the Role of Subjective Well-Being on Mediating Variables

To ensure the robustness of the statistical results, this study conducted separate paired t-tests on the mediating variables before and after the renewal. The results show a deterioration in social relationships and better living environments, housing conditions, social security, and economic conditions. After the implementation of urban village renewal, not only has the environmental sanitation improved, but the dilapidated single houses are changed into newly built flats with unified planning and equipped with community properties, car parks, fitness equipment, and other supporting facilities. Therefore, the housing conditions and living environment of households in the urban village renewal have generally improved.

Table 4. The OLS regression of the multi-dimensional impact of urban renewal on resettled households.

Variables	Housing Conditions	Living Environment	Social Relationship	Social Security	Economic Conditions
Renewal	0.744 *** (26.654)	0.799 *** (31.865)	−0.323 *** (−8.792)	0.164 *** (4.234)	0.321 *** (9.300)
Gender	0.010 (0.419)	0.001 (0.053)	−0.023 (−0.695)	0.063 * (1.835)	−0.004 (−0.137)
Age	0.014 (0.542)	0.026 (1.092)	0.023 (0.675)	0.092 ** (2.513)	−0.005 (−0.153)
Education	0.070 *** (2.692)	0.052 ** (2.246)	−0.021 (−0.623)	0.019 (0.515)	0.054 * (1.692)
Village cadres	0.039 (1.580)	0.013 (0.591)	0.094 *** (2.866)	−0.006 (−0.174)	0.002 (0.074)
Family size	0.147 *** (5.211)	0.057 ** (2.256)	−0.048 (−1.287)	−0.018 (−0.466)	−0.230 *** (−6.596)
Type of household registration	−0.163 *** (−6.624)	−0.034 (−1.554)	−0.209 *** (−6.462)	0.056 (1.636)	−0.141 *** (−4.618)
R2	0.506	0.602	0.126	0.046	0.244
F-value	120.073	177.236	16.855	5.651	37.887

Note: Level of significance: * p < 0.1; ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01.

presents the OLS estimates on the mediating variables of urban village renewal. It seems that the direction of the effect of urban village renewal on the mediating variables does not change significantly after controlling for individual and household characteristics. Urban village renewal has improved economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, and living environments but has disrupted the villagers’ social relationships.

4.3. The Mediating Effects of Subjective Well-Being in Urban Village Renewal

The direct effect of the urban village renewal policy implementation variable, X, on well-being, Y, has been demonstrated above. Therefore, this section reports the individual tests of the effect of the independent variable, X, on the mediating variables, M (economic status, housing status, social security, social relationships, and living environments) and the effect of M and X together on Y. This study, using Stata, begins with a hierarchical regression analysis based on the Order Probit model. The results are displayed in

Table 5. The hierarchical regression based on Order Probit model.

Variables	Benchmark Model	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
Renewal	0.6893 *** (7.7449)	0.5137 *** (5.5177)	0.2994 ** (2.4992)	0.2595 ** (2.1358)	0.2044 * (1.6686)	−0.2432 (−1.6021)
Gender	0.0094 (0.0767)	0.0158 (0.1279)	0.0103 (0.0833)	−0.0694 (−0.5534)	−0.0924 (−0.7328)	−0.0871 (−0.6875)
Age	0.0049 (1.256)	0.0051 (1.3077)	0.0049 (1.2564)	0.0018 (0.4615)	0.0032 (0.0800)	0.0029 (0.725)
Education	−0.0081 (−0.648)	−0.0137 (−1.0873)	−0.0166 (−1.3175)	−0.0184 (−1.4375)	−0.0114 (−0.8837)	−0.0153 (−1.1769)
Village cadres	0.0497 (0.2063)	0.0467 (0.1926)	0.0069 (0.0283)	0.0295 (0.1191)	0.1590 (0.6386)	0.1566 (0.6264)
Type of household registration	0.0081 (0.1588)	0.0671 (1.2904)	0.0952 * (1.7962)	0.0551 (1.0223)	−0.0189 (−0.3369)	−0.0143 (−0.2536)
Family size	0.0504 * (1.9535)	0.0945 *** (3.5261)	0.0746 ** (2.6931)	0.0748 ** (2.6714)	0.0752 ** (2.6762)	0.0722 ** (2.5512)
Economic conditions		0.0801 *** (6.9052)	0.0689 *** (5.6016)	0.0535 *** (4.2460)	0.0522 *** (4.1429)	0.0573 *** (4.5118)
Housing conditions			0.1890 *** (2.8336)	0.1869 ** (2.7648)	0.1869 ** (2.7485)	0.1333 * (1.9291)
Social security				0.5630 *** (9.4305)	0.5661 *** (9.435)	0.5259 *** (9.6497)
Social relationships					−0.2417 *** (−4.9126)	−0.2624 *** (−5.2903)
Living environment						0.1658 *** (5.0395)
Pseudo R2	0.0369	0.0635	0.0679	0.1182	0.1316	0.1456

Note: Level of significance: * p < 0.1; ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01.

. In the benchmark model without the mediating variables, urban village renewal has a positive effect on subjective well-being and passes the significance test at the 1% level with a coefficient of 0.6893. In accordance with the above hierarchical analysis of independent variables, the economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, social relationships, and living environments are put into the regression model individually and named model 1, model 2, model 3, model 4, and model 5, respectively.

Urban village renewal influences subjective well-being and passes the significance test by adding economic conditions as a mediating variable. The direct effect of the urban village on subjective well-being is reduced with the regression coefficient changing from 0.6893 to 0.5137. The mediating effect of the economic conditions is demonstrated by the significant positive effect of the renewal of economic conditions on subjective well-being in model 1. When the housing conditions variable is added to model 2, the estimation results show that the positive effect of urban village renewal on subjective well-being still passes the significance test, and the regression coefficient continues to decrease. Similarly, model 3, with the inclusion of the social security variable, presents the same characteristics. When the social relationships variable is added, all mediating variables show a significant positive effect on subjective well-being in model 4. The regression coefficient, c’, continues to decrease to 0.2044, and the significance level gradually decreases to 10%. At this point, the four dimensions that have been added to the model do not fully explain the effects of urban village renewal on subjective well-being, which are still partially mediated effects. Finally, when the living environment is added to model 5, the results show that the regression coefficients of the independent variables are no longer significant, and the regression coefficients of the five mediating variables all pass the significance test. It is evident that the five influencing factors of economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, social relationships, and living environment constitute a full mediating effect and can fully explain the effect of urban village renewal on subjective well-being. Meanwhile, the benchmark model to model 5 fits better and better until the best explanatory effect is achieved when all five mediating variables are added, indicating that the selection of mediating variables and the model setting are more reasonable.

4.4. Robustness Tests

An OLS hierarchical regression was adopted to test the robustness of the above intermediating effect, and the results are shown in

Table 6. The hierarchical regression based on OLS.

Variables	Benchmark Model	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
Renewal	0.306 *** (8.034)	0.221 *** (5.688)	0.132 *** (2.618)	0.108 ** (2.266)	0.085 * (1.799)	−0.084 (−1.1458)
Gender	0.004 (0.119)	0.005 (0.156)	0.004 (0.109)	−0.016 (−0.523)	−0.021 (0.691)	−0.020 (−0.650)
Age	0.046 (1.278)	0.047 (1.353)	0.045 (1.297)	0.016 (0.493)	0.027 (0.824)	0.024 (0.756)
Education	−0.024 (0.678)	−0.038 (−1.112)	−0.046 (−1.331)	−0.048 (−1.458)	−0.029 (0.909)	−0.039 (−1.211)
Village cadres	0.007 (0.192)	0.006 (0.179)	0.001 (0.019)	0.003 (0.098)	0.019 (0.613)	0.018 (0.590)
Type of household registration	0.003 (0.100)	0.041 (1.223)	0.058* (1.714)	0.030 (0.930)	−0.013 (−0.405)	−0.010 (−0.317)
Family size	0.076 * (1.966)	0.136 *** (3.554)	0.107 *** (2.718)	0.100 *** (2.684)	0.099 *** (2.681)	0.093 ** (2.548)
Economic conditions		0.264 *** (7.047)	0.226 *** (5.696)	0.164 *** (4.314)	0.158 *** (4.201)	0.170 *** (4.585)
Housing conditions			0.137 *** (2.785)	0.126 *** (2.715)	0.123 *** (2.689)	0.086 * (1.886)
Social security				0.311 *** (9.734)	0.307 *** (9.738)	0.280 *** (8.865)
Social relationships					−0.158 *** (−4.869)	−0.168 *** (−5.243)
Living environment						0.245 *** (5.020)
Adjusted R2	0.072	0.124	0.132	0.221	0.242	0.264
F-value	10.227	15.687	14.920	24.443	24.999	25.690

Note: Level of significance: * p < 0.1; ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01.

. In accordance with the hierarchical regression results based on the Order Probit model, as the mediating variables are gradually added, the regression coefficients of the originally significant independent variables gradually decreased until they were eventually no longer significant, and the model fit gradually improved. To sum up, the research hypothesis on the mediating mechanism is scientifically sound, and the estimation results are robust.

4.5. Oaxaca–Blinder Decomposition Results

The estimated coefficients of the Order Probit model above, to which subjective well-being is more applicable, cannot be directly compared to the extent to which the mediating variables contribute to subjective well-being. Therefore, in order to analyze and compare the extent of the role of different mediating influences on subjective well-being, an Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition of the difference is conducted to capture the contribution of different mediating variables to the difference in subjective well-being in urban village renewal and to provide a reference for the formulation of targeted happiness-enhancement recommendations.

As shown in

Table 7. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition of subjective well-being difference in urban village renewal.

Variables		Explainable Part	Contribution Rate	Unexplained Part	Contribution Rate
Total variation	−0.3986 *** (−8.1680)	−0.5206 *** (−6.9557)	130.62%	0.1220 *** (8.5793)	−30.62%
Composition decomposition	Human capital characteristics	−0.0636 *** (−2.9481)	−15.97%	0.8803 *** (8.5174)	244.95%
	Economic conditions	−0.1068 *** (−4.8798)	26.81%	−0.0771 (−1.7642)	−19.35%
	Social security	−0.0707 *** (−4.8580)	17.73%	0.0041 (0.7218)	−1.02%
	Housing conditions	−0.0852 ** (−2.4056)	21.39%	0.0031 (0.2196)	−0.78%
	Social relationships	−0.0432 *** (−4.1509)	10.85%	−0.0028 (−1.8539)	0.71%
	Living environment	−0.2782 *** (−5.1650)	69.81%	0.0325 (1.7208)	−8.17%
	Constant term			0.9843 (1.6785)	−246.98%

Note: Level of significance: ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01.

, the total difference in subjective well-being before and after the urban village renewal was −0.3986, indicating that villagers’ subjective well-being was lower before the renewal than after. The coefficients of the total difference decomposed into the explainable and unexplainable parts are −0.5206 and 0.1220, respectively, with contribution rates of 130.62% and −30.62%, respectively. The contribution of the explainable component to the total variance is higher than 100%, signifying that the explanatory variables lead to a higher variance than the actual variance.

In terms of the explainable component, economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, social relationships, and living environment as explanatory terms affecting subjective well-being, all passed the significance test. This clearly shows that changes in these mediating variables directly contribute to the differences in subjective well-being before and after urban village renewal. Notably, the living environment explains the differences most strongly, with a contribution rate of 69.81%, much higher than the contribution rates of the other influencing factors. The results show that the most direct change in the living environment brought about by the urban village renewal has become the most important factor influencing the difference in subjective well-being. Following this, the economic conditions contributed 26.81%, and the housing conditions contributed 21.39% to subjective well-being, and social security contributed 17.71% to the explainable part of the subjective well-being difference. The social relationships variable negatively mediated the effect on subjective well-being with a contribution rate of 10.85%, the lowest of the mediating influences.

The negative contribution of the unexplained component indicates that there are unobservable variables that make subjective well-being higher after renewal than before renewal. Among the unexplained terms, only the living environment passes the significance test. That is to say, unobservable factors can lead to differences in residents’ subjective well-being before and after urban village renewal through environmental changes.

5. Discussion

This paper demonstrates that living environment improvement makes the highest contribution to subjective well-being in urban villages, in line with previous reports about Western countries [62,63]. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the construction and improvement of the living environment of the resettled residents and the protection of the natural environment in future urban redevelopment, while it is also necessary to strengthen infrastructure facilities, construction, social, and environmental governance.

Previous cases of urban renewal in India indicate that the social networks of villagers have an impact on land redevelopment [26]. This study demonstrates that urban villages are transformed into urban communities, villagers are transformed into urban residents, and the social network of the original villages linked by geography and blood is broken by the reconfiguration of living space in the renewal of urban villages, which has a negative mediating effect on the subjective well-being of resettled residents. Urban renewal has been implemented for a long time in Western countries going through different phases of urbanization [64]. It has been proved that a policy that aims at coordinating state resources with market forces and public participation in these Western countries performs better in maintaining social networks [65]. Therefore, central governments and local authorities should consider the characteristics of, and the change in, social networks of residents in urban redevelopment. Specifically, concrete policy measures ought to be designed to reconstruct good social relationships in terms of protecting neighborhood networks, enhancing neighborhood attachment, and strengthening community establishment and residents’ participation. The next section lists some specific policy implications.

5.1. Policy Implications

Firstly, in situ rebuilding should be employed as much as possible in the redevelopment to retain original neighborhood networks to the maximum degree. At the same time, various forms of neighborhood activities are worth organizing to provide guidance for resettled households, establish good neighborhood attitudes, and enhance neighborhood attachment and cohesion [66].

Secondly, community committees should amend organizational systems and raise the perception of affiliation by integrating existing resources, providing quality services, and strengthening community culture construction. It is important to open up space in squares and centers for the elderly to engage in civic and cultural leisure activities. In addition, it is viable to propagandize cultural activities to attract the active participation of resettled households.

Finally, it is necessary for resettled residents to establish a long-term mechanism to augment community participation in urban village renewal, which renders assistance to convenient participation. Participation should be designed on the basis of detailed procedures to offer opportunities for disadvantaged residents to participate in the urban redevelopment agenda and community management without barriers. Additionally, resettled residents are expected to be allowed to participate in community and neighborhood committee elections and organize the discussion and development of community management systems.

5.2. Limitations

There are certain limitations that can be addressed in several ways in the future.

Firstly, this research only emphasizes the multi-dimensional changes brought about by urban village renewal and the intermediary role in the subjective well-being of resettled households. However, the impact of personal characteristics and behaviors on the subjective well-being of households in urban village renewal is equally important [12,15,56]; the heterogeneity of the characteristics of resettled households was only a control variable in our study rather than a core explanatory variable. In the future, we should further explore the impact of individual differences on the subjective well-being of the resettled households in urban village renewal on the basis of the effect and mechanism of the urban village renewal policy.

Secondly, this study only uses the changes before and after urban village renewal to reflect the impact of urban village renewal on subjective well-being and does not compare with areas where urban village renewal has not been carried out. Strictly speaking, it cannot be proved that the change in subjective well-being is entirely caused by the renewal of urban villages. However, it is difficult to find sufficient examples of urban villages that have not been renewed.

Thirdly, the distribution of survey samples is not completely consistent with the requirements of statistics. Research samples in our survey tend to age and have low levels of education, which is consistent with the unique characteristics of villagers and context in urban villages. It is difficult to find sufficient young and well-educated samples due to the unique characteristics of villagers and the context in urban villages.

Lastly, there is a lack of a comparison of cities with different economic development levels and renewal policies in this study. However, Wuhan is a typical city with certain achievements in urban village renewal, regardless of the time, scale, or mode of renewal. The inclusion of a control group of similar cities that have not been demolished and/or renewed and one of the mega-cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, will make the results more reliable in future research.

6. Conclusions

With the goal of high-quality development, one of the main policy objectives has been compiled on how to enhance residents’ subjective well-being in urban village renewal. Based on data from resettled households in urban villages in Wuhan, this paper applies a mediated effects model based on hierarchical regression analysis to examine the mechanism of subjective well-being. It supplies a reference for the formulation of policy recommendations to enhance the subjective well-being of residents.

The results show that urban village renewal has improved the economic conditions, housing conditions, social security, and living environment of resettled households and has markedly increased residents’ subjective well-being. In particular, economic conditions have been boosted by collective economic reform and redevelopment of industrial land. Furthermore, the natural, economic, and cultural environments have been improved because the dirty and untidy environments have been regulated. The housing conditions have been improved by the increased quality and value of housing. The social security of resettled households has become better through the purchase of pension insurance and the provision of employment and training, and so on.

However, there is the phenomenon that urban villages transform into urban communities, and villagers transform into urban residents. It shows that an original social network of villages, based on local and blood ties, has been broken in the renewal of the urban village.

The multi-dimensional changes from urban village renewal, through a fully mediated effect, contribute to subjective well-being. From the results of the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition of subjective well-being, it is evident that living environment improvement after urban village redevelopment has the strongest impact on subjective well-being, with a contribution rate of 69.81%.