IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cuf/journl/y2023v24i1liliouyang.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Housing and Wealth Inequality: The Role of Financial Market Participation

Author

Listed:
  • Jie Li

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

  • Sheng Li

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

  • Alice Y. Ouyang

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

Abstract

This paper examines how homeownership and housing value appreciation may contribute to household wealth accumulation, and possibly widen wealth inequality. We argue that housing value appreciation may strengthen households' willingness to invest in financial markets through raising households' risk tolerance on investment and increasing the collateral value of housing. This investment channel benefits the wealthier households more, and further enlarges wealth inequality. Using China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data in 2019, we lend empirical support to this argument and find it explain well on China’s widening wealth inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Jie Li & Sheng Li & Alice Y. Ouyang, 2023. "Housing and Wealth Inequality: The Role of Financial Market Participation," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 24(1), pages 141-170, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2023:v:24:i:1:liliouyang
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/aef240107LiLiOuyang.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli, 2003. "Household stockholding in Europe: where do we stand and where do we go? [‘Limited market participation and volatility of assets prices’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 123-170.
    2. Atif Mian & Amir Sufi, 2011. "House Prices, Home Equity-Based Borrowing, and the US Household Leverage Crisis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2132-2156, August.
    3. repec:cuf:journl:y:2017:v:18:i:1:zhaoli is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Archer, Wayne R. & Ling, David C. & McGill, Gary A., 1996. "The effect of income and collateral constraints on residential mortgage terminations," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3-4), pages 235-261, June.
    5. Brueckner, Jan K, 1997. "Consumption and Investment Motives and the Portfolio Choices of Homeowners," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 159-180, October.
    6. Mathä, Thomas Y. & Porpiglia, Alessandro & Ziegelmeyer, Michael, 2017. "Household wealth in the euro area: The importance of intergenerational transfers, homeownership and house price dynamics," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Zhang, Chuanchuan & Jia, Shen & Yang, Rudai, 2016. "Housing affordability and housing vacancy in China: The role of income inequality," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 4-14.
    8. Jarl G. Kallberg & Crocker H. Liu & D. Wylie Greig, 1996. "The Role of Real Estate in the Portfolio Allocation Process," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 24(3), pages 359-377, September.
    9. Li, Qize & Brounen, Dirk & Li, Jianjun & Wei, Xu, 2022. "Social interactions and Chinese households’ participation in the risky financial market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    10. Kacperczyk, Marcin & Nosal, Jaromir & Stevens, Luminita, 2019. "Investor sophistication and capital income inequality," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 18-31.
    11. Marjorie Flavin & Takashi Yamashita, 2002. "Owner-Occupied Housing and the Composition of the Household Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 345-362, March.
    12. Fratantoni, Michael C., 1998. "Homeownership and Investment in Risky Assets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 27-42, July.
    13. Dietz, Robert D. & Haurin, Donald R., 2003. "The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 401-450, November.
    14. Pástor, Lˇuboš & Veronesi, Pietro, 2016. "Income inequality and asset prices under redistributive taxation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-20.
    15. Roger G. Ibbotson & Laurence B. Siegel, 1984. "Real Estate Returns: A Comparison with Other Investments," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 12(3), pages 219-242, September.
    16. John Heaton & Deborah Lucas, 2000. "Portfolio Choice and Asset Prices: The Importance of Entrepreneurial Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1163-1198, June.
    17. Iris Claus & Les Oxley & Chen Wang & Guanghua Wan & Dan Yang, 2014. "Income Inequality In The People'S Republic Of China: Trends, Determinants, And Proposed Remedies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 686-708, September.
    18. Jie Li & Han Yu, 2014. "Income inequality and financial reform in Asia: the role of human capital," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(24), pages 2920-2935, August.
    19. Shing-Yi Wang, 2011. "State Misallocation and Housing Prices: Theory and Evidence from China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2081-2107, August.
    20. Richard Meyer & Kenneth Wieand, 1996. "Risk and Return to Housing, Tenure Choice and the Value of Housing in an Asset Pricing Context," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 24(1), pages 113-131, March.
    21. Di, Zhu Xiao & Belsky, Eric & Liu, Xiaodong, 2007. "Do homeowners achieve more household wealth in the long run?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 274-290, November.
    22. Stephen Cauley & Andrey Pavlov & Eduardo Schwartz, 2007. "Homeownership as a Constraint on Asset Allocation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 283-311, April.
    23. Henderson, J Vernon & Ioannides, Yannis M, 1983. "A Model of Housing Tenure Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 98-113, March.
    24. Roberto Quercia & George McCarthy & Rhonda Ryznar & Ayşe Can Talen, 2000. "Spatio-Temporal Measurement of House Price Appreciation in Underserved Areas," Journal of Housing Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 1-28, January.
    25. Turner, Tracy M. & Luea, Heather, 2009. "Homeownership, wealth accumulation and income status," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 104-114, June.
    26. Fratantoni, Michael C, 2001. "Homeownership, Committed Expenditure Risk, and the Stockholding Puzzle," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(2), pages 241-259, April.
    27. Jianmei Zhao & Jiandong Li, 2017. "The Dual Effects of Housing on Portfolio Choices: Evidence from Urban China," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 18(2), pages 253-276, November.
    28. Rui Yao, 2005. "Optimal Consumption and Portfolio Choices with Risky Housing and Borrowing Constraints," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 197-239.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qize Li & Dirk Brounen & Jianjun Li & Xu Wei, 2022. "The Effect of Housing Wealth on Household Portfolio Choice," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 23(2), pages 253-277, November.
    2. Fan, Gang-Zhi & Pu, Ming & Deng, Xiaoying & Ong, Seow Eng, 2018. "Optimal portfolio choices and the determination of housing rents under housing market uncertainty," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 200-217.
    3. repec:cuf:journl:y:2017:v:18:i:1:zhaoli is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Dietz, Robert D. & Haurin, Donald R., 2003. "The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 401-450, November.
    5. Jianmei Zhao & Jiandong Li, 2017. "The Dual Effects of Housing on Portfolio Choices: Evidence from Urban China," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 18(2), pages 253-276, November.
    6. Eli Beracha & Alexandre Skiba & Ken H Johnson, 2017. "Housing Ownership Decision Making in the Framework of Household Portfolio Choice," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 39(2), pages 263-288.
    7. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo.
    8. Tokuo Iwaisako & Arito Ono & Amane Saito & Hidenobu Tokuda, 2022. "Disentangling the effect of home ownership on household stockholdings: Evidence from Japanese micro data," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(1), pages 268-295, March.
    9. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2012. "Homeownerhip and Entrepreneurship," SERC Discussion Papers 0103, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Zou, Jing & Deng, Xiaojun, 2019. "Financial literacy, housing value and household financial market participation: Evidence from urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 52-66.
    11. Stephen Snudden, 2024. "Idiosyncratic Asset Return and Wage Risk of US Households," LCERPA Working Papers jc0144, Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis.
    12. Bracke, Philippe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Silva, Olmo, 2018. "Mortgage debt and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 52-66.
    13. Leo Kaas & Georgi Kocharkov & Edgar Preugschat, 2019. "Does homeownership promote wealth accumulation?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(14), pages 1186-1191, August.
    14. Chen, Xi, 2018. "Optimal life cycle mortgage and portfolio choices in the presence of the affordability constraint," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-16.
    15. Jan Rouwendal, 2009. "Housing Wealth and Household Portfolios in an Ageing Society," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 1-48, March.
    16. Stephen H. Shore & Todd Sinai, 2010. "Commitment, Risk, and Consumption: Do Birds of a Feather Have Bigger Nests?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 408-424, May.
    17. Otto Van Hemert, 2010. "Household Interest Rate Risk Management," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 467-505, September.
    18. Yamashita, Takashi, 2003. "Owner-occupied housing and investment in stocks: an empirical test," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 220-237, March.
    19. Ran Sun Lyng & Jie Zhou, 2019. "Household Portfolio Choice Before and After a House Purchase," Economics Working Papers 2019-01, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    20. Raj Chetty & László Sándor & Adam Szeidl, 2017. "The Effect of Housing on Portfolio Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1171-1212, June.
    21. Jin, Fangyi, 2011. "Revisiting the composition puzzles of the household portfolio: New evidence," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 63-73, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing; Wealth accumulation; Financial market Participation; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2023:v:24:i:1:liliouyang. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.