1. Housing-choice hindrances and urban spatial structure: Evidence from matched location and location-preference data in Chinese cities
- Author
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Zheng, Siqi, Fu, Yuming, and Liu, Hongyu
- Subjects
Dwellings -- Analysis ,Housing -- Analysis ,Business ,Economics ,Government - Abstract
To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2006.05.003 Byline: Siqi Zheng (a), Yuming Fu (b), Hongyu Liu (a) Keywords: Bid-rent gradient; Urban spatial structure; Location choice; Housing markets; Transition economies Abstract: In a monocentric city with a well-functioning residential market, Pareto-efficient spatial equilibrium entails the sorting of residents according to their bid-rent gradient in descending order away from city center. Violation of this sorting condition creates opportunities for Pareto-improving trading of locations and can be sustained only if the market is hindered. We propose a simple ordered-location-choice model using matched location and location-preference data of individual households to examine violations of the Pareto-efficient spatial sorting condition. In so doing we are able to identify population groups facing housing-choice hindrances. We find in a sample of Chinese cities undergoing housing market liberalization that poor marketability of the previously state-provided homes, inadequate provision of housing finance, and spatial mismatch between job-market and housing-market opportunities contribute to a Pareto-inefficient spatial structure. Author Affiliation: (a) Institute of Real Estate Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (b) Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore, 117566 Article History: Received 13 March 2005; Revised 8 May 2006
- Published
- 2006