Housing wealth and household consumption in urban China

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Scotland), 2020-06, Vol.57 (8), p.1714-1732
• Main Authors: He, Zekai, Ye, Jingjing, Shi, Xiuzhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Appreciation; Consumption; Datasets; Debt; Discontinuity; Durable goods; Health care industry; Health education; Health insurance; Health risks; Heterogeneity; Households; Housing; Housing needs; Propensity to consume; Property values; Urban areas; Wealth
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098019844410

Using a large Chinese household survey data set, we investigate the effect of home value appreciation on urban household consumption. The paper identifies the causal effect of housing wealth using both Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimates and regression discontinuity designs. The research demonstrates that the housing boom in China has resulted in higher consumption and that a 10% increase in home wealth raises overall consumption by approximately 3%. The average marginal propensity to consume out of housing wealth is about 5 cents with substantial heterogeneity across household characteristics. The findings highlight the role of mortgage debts, health insurance, education and risk preference in explaining the variation in household consumption. Our results persist when we adopt different proxies for housing wealth. 利用中国家庭层面调查大数据，我们研宄房屋资产升值对城市家庭消费的影响。本文采用 两阶段最小二乘(2SLS)估计和断点回归设计方法来识别住房资产对消费的财富效应。研宄 表明，中国房地产繁荣促进了消费，住房资产每增长10%,家庭消费支出增长约为3%。住 房财富的边际消费倾向约为0.05,但不同家庭特征呈现出显著的异质性。研宄结果显示了 住房按揭贷款债务、健康保险、教育和风险偏好在解释家庭消费差异性方面的作用。我们 选择不同的住房资产代理变量进行稳健性检验，得出一致结果。