Housing Property Rights Research Articles

Migration experience and risky financial assets investments of county households: evidence from China

Enhancing the support for inclusive finance in county economies is crucial in achieving the strategic goal of building financial power. Drawing upon the theoretical lens of county-level inclusive financial accessibility, this study examines the effect of the migration experience (ME) of county socialites on their risky financial assets investment (FAI) and the underlying mechanisms. We utilize data sourced from the County Consumption Survey, a nationwide effort by the Department of Sociology of Tsinghua University and the 58 Tongzhen Research Group. Our findings reveal that the ME of county socialites significantly boosts their likelihood of engaging in financial markets. Furthermore, housing inequality factors, such as housing property rights and housing loans, play a moderating role in the impact of individual ME on their FAI. Additionally, the financial concept has a masking effect rather than a mediating effect on the path of the ME affecting FAI. Notably, the promotion effect of ME displays heterogeneity. Specifically, ME has a stronger positive effect on FAI among college-educated groups, members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and urban hukou residents than on those who have not completed college education, non-CPC members and rural hukou households. In light of these findings, we propose policy recommendations to optimize the distribution of financial services, adjust the housing equality policy, and enhance inclusive financial literacy.

Defining indicators for evaluating the residential environment in historic districts based on human needs: focusing on two cases in Northern China

ABSTRACT Compared to traditional communities, the residential environment in historic districts (HDs) is generally poor. Tourism development within HDs has affected these environments. As tailored assessment indicators are absent in HDs, this study introduces the historic district residential environment assessment indicator (HD-REAI) – a framework designed for the urban setting of HDs. The HD-REAI integrates Maslow’s theory and addresses the challenges and attributes of HDs. HD-REAI focuses on factors like housing property rights and district culture, which are pivotal for HDs. This enables a more nuanced and relevant evaluation of the residential environment in these areas. This study details the development of the HD-REAI and validates its efficacy through its application in two Northern Chinese HDs. The results demonstrate that the HD-REAI effectively assesses the environment, offering a specialized and context-sensitive tool. Moreover, different socioeconomic attributes have different effects on the assessment results. This study could provide a basis for constructing more refined and context-specific assessment tools to enhance residential environments in HDs

Fragmented property rights and their risks on foreclosed housing: a qualitative comparative analysis based on judicial auctions in China

During China’s transition towards land and housing marketization in the 1980s to 1990s, a series of legal and policy arrangements led to the separation of land ownership from land-use rights, followed by the separation of housing ownership from land-use rights. This has institutionally fragmented the housing property rights, allowing properties to be financialized as collaterals. Consequently, the fragmentation of housing property rights inflicts substantial risks on judicial auctions of foreclosed housing. As China’s real estate sector is grappling with a mounting debt crisis, it becomes imperative to enhance the efficiency of judicial auctions to address bank debts and stabilize the housing financial system. By employing the cs-QCA method with a dataset comprising 136 cases of foreclosed properties, this study reveals the critical role of various configurations of property-rights risks in determining the outcome of judicial auctions. Additionally, it identifies the importance of credible commitments offered by the courts in mitigating property-rights risks. The research expects to provide practical and theoretical insights for China’s courts and financial institutions to manage foreclosed properties effectively.

Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China

This paper engages with the ongoing theoretical enquiry into the actual functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights. Departing from the prevailing neoliberal perspective and the credibility thesis, this paper develops a framework of institutional analysis to understand the functioning and regional variation of informal property rights. It takes the institutions-as-equilibria perspective and situates both structural and endogenous institutional variables in actors’ strategic choices. We test our conceptual framework through a multisite empirical study of extralegal and untitled housing in China. Building on game theory, archival research, and fieldwork, we compare the key variables contributing to the divergent fortunes of extralegal and untitled housing property rights in three Chinese cities: prospering in Shenzhen, selectively interfered with in Beijing, and eliminated in Sanya. The functioning of informal property rights is found to be contingent upon diverse strategic interactions of local governments and key local stakeholders. Our paper highlights the formation of local actors’ behavioral beliefs and their adjustment through a nonlinear feedback mechanism. It suggests the necessity and significance of integrating structural and endogenous institutional variables, elaborating on the interplay of formal and informal institutions, and applying the microeconomic and dynamic perspectives to better understand the functioning and diverse practices of informal property rights in the developing world.

Housing property rights, collateral, and entrepreneurship: Evidence from China

This paper provides new evidence on the impact of the housing collateral lending channel on entrepreneurial activities by allowing homeowners to access property equity and invest in new businesses. We exploit dual housing property rights forms in China as an instrument, where complete access to collateral values is only legally granted to homeowners with full property rights (FPR), with no access for those without FPR. Using data from a large survey, we find that local house price growth significantly increases the probability of starting a new business for FPR homeowners relative to the control group. The effects are robust when we rely on the exogenous shock induced by the house purchase restriction and primarily driven by homeowners without household debt. Macro analysis supports a positive correlation between the concentration of FPR homeowners and employment and economic growth, where homeowners are better able to obtain external financing via the collateral channel.

Does housing liquidity matter? Housing property rights and labour market participation of older migrants in China

AbstractThis paper adds to the literature by identifying the effect of home ownership on rural-to-urban older migrants’ labour market participation in China. Using the 2016 wave of the China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we find that older migrants who do not own houses are more likely to participate in the labour market than home owners. To alleviate endogeneity caused by the potential sample selection problem, the propensity score matching method is employed. Our results imply that home ownership can be used as a type of precautionary/retirement savings for older migrants, especially for the ones lacking in financial security. We also show that older migrants owning houses with a higher level of liquidity are less likely to participate in the labour market. It indicates that liquidity may significantly affect the effectiveness for older migrants to use home ownership as precautionary/retirement savings.

The Expected Demand for Elderly Care Services and Anticipated Living Arrangements Among the Oldest Old in China Based on the Andersen Model.

Objective: The first aim of this study was to explore expected demands of the oldest old and their determinants for different types of elderly care services. The second aim was to investigate preferred choices of living arrangements among the oldest old and the influencing factors.Methods: Data of 4,738 participants aged ≥80 years were extracted from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey carried out in 2014. Using the Andersen model as the analysis framework, a multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between the expected elderly care services and living arrangements and other influencing factors. The odds ratios were calculated to indicate the relationship between the influencing factors and the dependent variables.Results: From the descriptive analysis results, we found that the oldest old showed high anticipated needs for home visits (83.5%) and health education (76.4%). Further, there existed a huge imbalance between the supply and demand of care services for the aged. Living with children is still the most important way of providing for the oldest old. The regression results showed that the expected demands for elderly care services and anticipated living arrangements among the oldest old in China are influenced by age, residence, housing property rights, economic status, loneliness, and activities of daily living (ADLs). The oldest old who are older without housing property rights, childless, and have restricted ADLs were more frequently observed to live in long-term care institutions.Conclusions: There is an inequality of the supply and expected demand for elderly care services, and living with children is still a preferred choice of the Chinese oldest old. Our findings indicate that when planning how to promote elderly care services among the oldest old, it is important to consider their expectations, especially for the subgroup that is relatively disadvantaged. Related policies should be developed to offer incentives to family caregivers when they live with the oldest old.

Research on the Greening Rate and Spatial Differences of Urban Residential Neighborhoods in Shenzhen

Residential green spaces are one of the most frequently used urban green space types. Aiming at filling a gap in the existing greening indicators with considerations on the spatial differences of residential green spaces, as well as to inform the improvement of urban green space service, three greening indicators, i.e. residential unit’s green coverage rate, green view index, and park ratio within a 500 m service radius, are proposed in this paper. This study selects 14,196 residential units in built area of Shenzhen City in 2017 to measure the greening rate and the geographic spatial factors of the units upon multi-sourced geographic databases such as land cover maps and street view images. The research reveals that: 1) the three indicators can all independently measure the greening rate within or around residential units; 2) the studied residential units are low in residential unit’s green coverage rate and park ratio within a 500 m service radius, but high in green view index; 3) there are significant disparities of the greening rate and the surrounding parks in 500 m service radius among the studied units, and among different housing property rights, showing a disequilibrium in green space service; and 4) the greening rate of residential units is mainly impacted by factors such as development intensity, types of housing property right, altitude, and location. In conclusion, it is suggested that urban green space layout should prioritize improving the spatial distribution and layout of residential green spaces, especially for the socially vulnerable population. Finally, the study points out that the park ratio within a 500 m service radius can be adopted as a supplement to existing greening indicators for residential areas.

Can Housing Property Necessarily Lead to Job Satisfaction? Based on the Observation of Urban Housing and Job Satisfaction

In the context of the current social stratification of housing wealth, a large number of researches have confirmed the positive impact of housing property rights on happiness. However, as a special commodity with both consumption and investment attributes, the impact of housing on modern urban families may not be limited to life feelings. Most of the current researches focus on the observation of overall well-being or life satisfaction, and pay little attention to workers’ working attitude.For urban families who rely on their occupational income to obtain class status and use housing investment to resist social risks, housing and employment issues are the core content of the middle class anxiety. This paper uses CLDS data to explore the impact of housing stratification on workers’ job satisfaction from many dimensions. This study shows the realistic mentality of families in various housing classes in terms of job satisfaction: For families with more than one housing property right, their “housing freedom” increases their freedom in working choices, so they maintain a high degree of satisfaction with their jobs; for families with single housing property right, the pressure of repaying the mortgage and the relative sense of deprivation that the rise of housing prices cannot be realized makes the real estate class show obvious anxiety and dissatisfaction in employment, especially in work income. The conclusion of this paper reveals a worrying fact: Although most urban workers have already achieved “Live in Peace”, high housing prices and high mortgages have restricted their ability to “Work in Contentment”, and housing differentiation has restrained and replaced the spirit of “work hard and work happy” of urban workers to a certain extent.Different from the existing research, this paper reveals the negative effect of housing property rights on the job satisfaction of people with single housing property right. There are two possible marginal contributions: First, most of the current researches focus on the overall subjective satisfaction or life satisfaction, while the research on the subjective employment attitude such as housing to workers’ job satisfaction is rarely involved. This study, from the perspectives of housing stratification and job satisfaction, depicts the anxiety problems of urban families, especially those with housing property rights, and reveals the employment anxiety that the single housing property right brings to the property families. This finding enriches the academic research on the impact of housing on subjective satisfaction and the job market from a micro perspective. Second, this paper not only conducts empirical exploration on the three psychological mechanisms of housing property rights affecting job satisfaction, but also uses subjective and objective index estimation results to compare work income, working hours and working environment to reveal the reasons for the employment anxiety of families with single housing property right. The reason is largely due to the dissatisfaction with work income. This idea is expected to enrich the related research based on purely subjective variables. The findings also help to broaden the academic community’s understanding of the anxiety of middle class, and have enlightening significance for the government to formulate housing and employment policies.

On the reverse mortgage in China: An Empirical Analysis Based on risk neutral pricing method

“Reverse mortgage loan of housing" refers to the mortgage of housing property rights to financial institutions by the elderly with housing property rights. After comprehensive evaluation of borrower’s age, expected life, the present value of house, future appreciation and depreciation and other situations, the value of the house is divided into parts, and the cash is paid to the borrower on a monthly or annual basis until the borrower’s death.

Are housing property rights important for fertility outcomes in China? Empirical evidence and policy issues

This is the first econometric study of the impact of housing property rights on family fertility in China. It is important policy-wise because China’s government wants to raise China’s birth rate. This analysis is based on relevant samples drawn from the 2016 China Family Survey and utilizes linear probability, Probit and two-stage least square models. Having housing property rights is found to have a statistically significant positive influence on fertility in China. This result is consistent with most research results for other countries. Other significant influences on fertility include income levels, the sex of respondents, age, whether they are employed, their health and level of education. Furthermore, it is found (in China) that if the first-born child is a boy, parents are less likely to have a second child; and that rural families have substantially more children than urban ones. These features (as observed in the literature) are common in patriarchal societies and in developing ones. It is argued that China’s economic reforms and structural economic change (especially rapid urbanization) have led to a substantial reduction in its birth rate. Given our research results, it is unlikely that the cessation of China’s ‘One Child’ policy will in itself result in a sizeable rise in its fertility rate. Nevertheless, given our findings, public policies facilitating the purchase of housing by first-home buyers should contribute positively to China’s fertility rate.

Who owns China's housing? Endogeneity as a lens to understand ambiguities of urban and rural property

When considering development and urbanization, a critical question relates to the institutions on the basis of which these ought to be achieved. Formal, private and titled property rights are oft considered as essential in this. However, contrary to the notion that such rights can be exogenously designed and implemented, this paper ascertains that the property rights of Chinese housing stem from endogenous development. The institutional amalgam of contradictory, overlapping and opaque rights points to endogeneity – resultant from actors' multitudinous interactions, bargaining and conflict – rather than the reverse. The housing property rights are analyzed in an evolutionary sense around ownership as an idealized concept. In so doing, the paper describes how the Chinese housing rights' structure developed into its current form; what has been commercialized and what not; and what is formally defined and what not. The analysis covers a half century: the collectivist period since 1962 until the present, with a focus on the time since the 1998 Housing Reforms. The analysis includes the main types of urban and rural housing. In light of the endogenous structure of China's housing, the article cautions against precipitous institutional intervention, and contends that formalization and titling should proceed with great care.

Housing property rights and subjective wellbeing in urban China

This study explores the relationship between home ownership and subjective wellbeing in urban China. We first present a theoretical model examining the relationship between housing property rights and subjective wellbeing in China. We then test the predictions of the theoretical model using a nationally representative dataset. We find that not only home ownership but also the types of property rights one acquires matter for subjective wellbeing. Moreover, not only whether one has a home loan, but the type of home loan one has matters for subjective wellbeing.

The Emergence of a new urban China: insiders' perspectives

Section I. Migrant Workers and Community Reaction 1. Job Mobility of Rural Migrants in China's Urban Labor Market: the Case of Pearl River Delta Region, Zhen Li and Zai Liang 2. Economic Deprivation, Social Networks and Unprotected Rights- A Study on Peasant Workers' Collective Action in the Pearl River Delta, Xiaojuan Chen and Cheng Chen 3. Institutionnel Segmentation and Psychosocial Repellence: Urban Residents' Attitude toward Migrants, Jiashun Wang and Steven F. Messner Section II. New Patterns of Urbanization 4. On Not Wanting to Become Urban- Ethnographic Perspectives from a Pearl River Delta Urban Community Transited from Rural Village, Cuiling Li and Josephine Smart 5. The Development of Rural Village in Chinese City - A Case study of Zhu Village in Guangzhou, Fuping Chen and Eric Fong 6. Changing Economy and Urbanization in a Chinese Ethnic Minority Village: The Case of Bai Peasants in Xizhou, Yunnan Province, Xiongduan Yang and Alan Smart Section III. Impacts of Globalization, Technology, and Markets on Urban China 7. The Reconstruction of Social Support System for African Merchants in Guangzhou, China, Tao Xu and Zai Liang 8. Mobile Phone Culture among the Information Have-less: A Case Study of Laid-off Workers in Shenyang City, China, Guangxu Ji and Youqin Huang 9. Housing Property Rights Disputes in Urban Chinese Families: An Institutional and Sociological Perspective, Jing Li and Youqin Huang

Locating Chinese Urban Housing Policy in an International Context

China’s economic development has often been contrasted with that of other transition economies in Europe, but academics have fought shy of making direct comparisons of urban housing reform in the two systems. This paper fills this gap by making such direct comparisons. Adopting the market - housing model advocated by the World Bank as an analytical framework it finds that extensive housing privatisation in China is supported by a system of urban housing property rights and a growing residential mortgage market. Although China has a distinctive institutional framework, there is also much variety among the European transition countries, and a distinctive Chinese model was not identified; so this micro-level analysis did not support the contention that China represents a form of "contested modernity." Nonetheless, a crucial point arises from China's hybrid status as a developing as well as a transition country. The bulk of the urban migrant population remains excluded from formal housing policy and enabling strategies that form an element of the market - housing model especially in developing countries are not so much replaced by a distinctive Chinese model as by a yawning gap.

Local Activism and the Prospects for Civil Society in Moscow

Three geographers with extensive knowledge of the development of local activism in Russia seek to identify types of civic engagement present at the local level in Moscow. They focus on the role of neighborhood-based housing movements in the creation of a civil society and as a link between social activity and the implementation of new housing property rights. They then examine the structure and distribution of a wider range of urban social movements and survey four focus groups in an effort to measure the social activity of Muscovites and the emergence of new, residentially based spaces of citizenship in Moscow. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L30, P30, R21. 4 figures, 3 tables, 37 references.