IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v51y2014i1p75-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Public Investment Improve Homeowners’ Happiness? New Evidence based on Micro Surveys in Beijing

Author

Listed:
  • Wenjie Wu

Abstract

The Beijing government has made massive investments in rail transit construction since the 2000s. While existing studies provide marginal values for rail access in the real estate market, little is known about homeowners’ happiness evaluation of such public investment. Using large-scale micro survey data, this paper estimates, in a difference-in-difference framework, the effects on homeowners’ happiness about public commuting and other residential realms of a transport improvement that altered the residence–station distance for some households, whilst leaving others unaffected. The estimation accounts for the endogeneity between the residential location choice and transport choice by using non-market ( fang gai ) housing with pre-determined residential location. It is found that better rail access not only provides sizeable happiness about public commuting to Beijing homeowners, but also affects their happiness in other residential realms. This finding adds to the evidence that public investment has an important role to play in influencing homeowners’ living experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenjie Wu, 2014. "Does Public Investment Improve Homeowners’ Happiness? New Evidence based on Micro Surveys in Beijing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(1), pages 75-92, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:51:y:2014:i:1:p:75-92
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098013484530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098013484530
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098013484530?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ya Ping Wang & Alan Murie, 2000. "Social and Spatial Implications of Housing Reform in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 397-417, June.
    2. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen, 2005. "Valuing rail access using transport innovations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 148-169, January.
    3. Oswald, Andrew J. & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2008. "Does happiness adapt? A longitudinal study of disability with implications for economists and judges," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1061-1077, June.
    4. Zheng, Siqi & Kahn, Matthew E., 2008. "Land and residential property markets in a booming economy: New evidence from Beijing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 743-757, March.
    5. Bowes, David R. & Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., 2001. "Identifying the Impacts of Rail Transit Stations on Residential Property Values," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, July.
    6. Stephen Gibbons & Stephen Machin, 2008. "Valuing school quality, better transport, and lower crime: evidence from house prices," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(1), pages 99-119, spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cheng, Zhiming & King, Stephen P. & Smyth, Russell & Wang, Haining, 2016. "Housing property rights and subjective wellbeing in urban China," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 160-174.
    2. Anping Chen & Marlon Boarnet & Mark Partridge & Wenjie Wu & Guanpeng Dong, 2014. "Valuing The “Green” Amenities In A Spatial Context," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 569-585, September.
    3. Wenjie Wu & Guanpeng Dong & Bing Wang, 2015. "Does Planning Matter? Effects on Land Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 242-269, February.
    4. Wu, Wenjie, 2015. "Rail access and subjective well-being: Evidence from quality of life surveys," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 456-470.

    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. Wenjie Wu & Guanpeng Dong & Bing Wang, 2015. "Does Planning Matter? Effects on Land Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 242-269, February.
    2. Wenjie Wu, 2012. "Does Public Investment Spur the Land Market?: Evidence from Transport Improvement in Beijing," SERC Discussion Papers 0116, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Wu, Wenjie, 2015. "Rail access and subjective well-being: Evidence from quality of life surveys," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 456-470.
    4. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Nitsch, Volker & Wendland, Nicolai, 2019. "Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Diao, Mi & Leonard, Delon & Sing, Tien Foo, 2017. "Spatial-difference-in-differences models for impact of new mass rapid transit line on private housing values," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 64-77.
    6. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Volker Nitsch & Nicolai Wendland, 2016. "Ease vs. Noise: On the Conflicting Effects of Transportation Infrastructure," CESifo Working Paper Series 6058, CESifo.
    7. Seungwoo Chin & Matthew E. Kahn & Hyungsik Roger Moon, 2020. "Estimating the Gains from New Rail Transit Investment: A Machine Learning Tree Approach," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(3), pages 886-914, September.
    8. Dubé, Jean & Le Gallo, Julie & Des Rosiers, François & Legros, Diègo & Champagne, Marie-Pier, 2024. "An integrated causal framework to evaluate uplift value with an example on change in public transport supply," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    9. Wenjie Wu, 2012. "Spatial Variations in Amenity Values: New Evidence from Beijing, China," SERC Discussion Papers 0113, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Karen Mayor & Seán Lyons & David Duffy & Richard S. J. Tol, 2012. "A Hedonic Analysis of the Value of Rail Transport in the Greater Dublin Area," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(2), pages 239-261, May.
    11. Zheng, Siqi & Xu, Yangfei & Zhang, Xiaonan & Wang, Rui, 2016. "Transit development, consumer amenities and home values: Evidence from Beijing's subway neighborhoods," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 22-33.
    12. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Volker Nitsch & Nicolai Wendland, 2019. "Ease versus noise: long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," CEP Discussion Papers dp1631, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    13. Zhengyi Zhou & Hong Chen & Lu Han & Anming Zhang, 2021. "The Effect of a Subway on House Prices: Evidence from Shanghai," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S1), pages 199-234, March.
    14. Comber, Sam & Arribas-Bel, Dani, 2017. "“Waiting on the train”: The anticipatory (causal) effects of Crossrail in Ealing," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 13-22.
    15. Sadayuki, Taisuke, 2018. "Measuring the spatial effect of multiple sites: An application to housing rent and public transportation in Tokyo, Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 155-173.
    16. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendlan, Nicolai, 2008. "Spatial Determinants of CBD Emergence: A Micro-level Case Study on Berlin∗," MPRA Paper 11572, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Juan Tomas Sayago-Gomez & Adam Nowak, 2016. "What is Near and Recent in Crime for a Homeowner? The Cases of Denver and Seattle," Working Papers Working Paper 2016-01, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    18. Qing Shen & Simin Xu & Jiang Lin, 2018. "Effects of bus transit-oriented development (BTOD) on single-family property value in Seattle metropolitan area," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(13), pages 2960-2979, October.
    19. Shadi O. Tehrani & Shuling J. Wu & Jennifer D. Roberts, 2019. "The Color of Health: Residential Segregation, Light Rail Transit Developments, and Gentrification in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-19, September.
    20. Mi Diao & Yi Zhu & Jiren Zhu, 2017. "Intra-city access to inter-city transport nodes: The implications of high-speed-rail station locations for the urban development of Chinese cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(10), pages 2249-2267, August.

    More about this item

    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:sae:urbstu:v:51:y:2014:i:1:p:75-92. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.