IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/chosxx/v32y2017i5p638-658.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Housing assets to the elderly in urban China: to fund or to hedge?

Author

Listed:
  • Zan Yang
  • Ying Fan
  • Cindy Hiu-ying Cheung

Abstract

Housing has become the most important asset held by a large proportion of China’s older citizens. Therefore, the role of housing wealth in the consumption decisions of the elderly is a central topic of research and gains insights into the saving, investment and consumption decisions made throughout household life to meet later pension needs. In this paper, using data drawn from a household survey conducted between 2002 and 2009, we estimate the influence of housing wealth on the non-housing consumption of the elderly, and identify the mechanisms underlying this relationship. We find that on average, changes in housing wealth have limited effects on elderly consumption. However, we also find that the role of housing in consumption differs according to the income, health status, and living arrangements of the elderly. The paper draws attention to the influence of housing and its links with social and health-care systems on the lives of older people, with important policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Zan Yang & Ying Fan & Cindy Hiu-ying Cheung, 2017. "Housing assets to the elderly in urban China: to fund or to hedge?," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 638-658, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:32:y:2017:i:5:p:638-658
    DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2016.1228853
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02673037.2016.1228853
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02673037.2016.1228853?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lina Walker, 2004. "Elderly Households and Housing Wealth: Do They Use It or Lose It?," Working Papers wp070, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    2. Jonathan S. Skinner, 1996. "Is Housing Wealth a Sideshow?," NBER Chapters, in: Advances in the Economics of Aging, pages 241-272, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Atella, Vincenzo & Brugiavini, Agar & Pace, Noemi, 2015. "The health care system reform in China: Effects on out-of-pocket expenses and saving," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 182-195.
    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. Zan Yang & Ying Fan & Liqing Zhao, 2018. "A Reexamination of Housing Price and Household Consumption in China: The Dual Role of Housing Consumption and Housing Investment," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 472-499, April.
    2. Zan Yang & Yuqi Fu, 2019. "Physical Attributes of Housing and Elderly Health: A New Dynamic Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Fan, Ying & Sing, Tien Foo, 2021. "Macroeconomic policy-induced wealth effects on Chinese foreign housing investments," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Hanewald, Katja & Bateman, Hazel & Fang, Hanming & Wu, Shang, 2020. "Is there a demand for reverse mortgages in China? Evidence from two online surveys," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 19-37.
    5. Yu, Miao & Zhao, Xintong & Gao, Yuning, 2019. "Factor decomposition of China’s industrial electricity consumption using structural decomposition analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 67-76.

    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. Davidoff, Thomas, 2010. "Home equity commitment and long-term care insurance demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 44-49, February.
    2. Declan French & Donal McKillop & Tripti Sharma, 2017. "Analysis of Housing Equity Withdrawal by its Forms," CHaRMS Working Papers 17-04, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).
    3. James M. Poterba & Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 1996. "How Retirement Saving Programs Increase Saving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 91-112, Fall.
    4. Costa-Font, Joan & Frank, Richard G. & Swartz, Katherine, 2019. "Access to long term care after a wealth shock: Evidence from the housing bubble and burst," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 103-110.
    5. Helmut Rainer & Ian Smith, 2010. "Staying together for the sake of the home?: house price shocks and partnership dissolution in the UK," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(3), pages 557-574, July.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/56k383m9o9kpb1g6f8rvv74ok is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Muñoz, Sònia, 2004. "Real effects of regional house prices: dynamic panel estimation with heterogeneity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24704, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/30nstiku669glbr66l6n7mc2oq is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Warshawsky, Mark, 2017. "Retire on the House: The Possible Use of Reverse Mortgages to Enhance Retirement Security," Working Papers 07626, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    10. Odran Bonnet & Pierre-Henri Bono & Guillaume Flamerie de La Chapelle & Etienne Wasmer, 2014. "Does housing capital contribute to inequality? A comment on Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03460508, HAL.
    11. Engelhardt, Gary V., 1996. "House prices and home owner saving behavior," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3-4), pages 313-336, June.
    12. Jiaqi Chen & Song Xu & Jing Gao, 2020. "The Mixed Effect of China’s New Health Care Reform on Health Insurance Coverage and the Efficiency of Health Service Utilisation: A Longitudinal Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-13, March.
    13. Nancy van Beers & Michiel Bijlsma & Remco Mocking, 2015. "House Price Shocks and Household Savings: evidence from Dutch administrative data," CPB Discussion Paper 299, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Turner, Tracy M. & Luea, Heather, 2009. "Homeownership, wealth accumulation and income status," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 104-114, June.
    15. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Ludwig, Alexander & Sommer, Mathias, 2005. "Aging and asset prices," Papers 07-29, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    16. Kovacs, Agnes & Rostom, May & Bunn, Philip, 2018. "Consumption response to aggregate shocks and the role of leverage," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90378, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Skinner, Jonathan, 1996. "The dynamic efficiency cost of not taxing housing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 397-417, March.
    18. Robert Haveman & Karen Holden & Andrei Romanov & Barbara Wolfe, 2007. "Assessing the maintenance of savings sufficiency over the first decade of retirement," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(4), pages 481-502, August.
    19. Sun Wei & Triest Robert K. & Webb Anthony, 2008. "Optimal Retirement Asset Decumulation Strategies: The Impact of Housing Wealth," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, September.
    20. Tran, My & Gannon, Brenda & Rose, Christiern, 2023. "The effect of housing wealth on older adults’ health care utilization: Evidence from fluctuations in the U.S. housing market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    21. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1eob9f9aas9q18hfjsiqhggvi2 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Odran Bonnet & Guillaume Flamerie de la Chapelle & Alain Trannoy & Etienne Wasmer, 2019. "Secular trends in Wealth and Heterogeneous Capital: Land is back...and should be taxed," SciencePo Working papers hal-03541411, HAL.
    23. Luigi Guiso & Monica Paiella & Ignazio Visco, 2005. "Do capital gains affect consumption? Estimates of wealth effects from Italian households� behavior," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 555, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    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:taf:chosxx:v:32:y:2017:i:5:p:638-658. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/chos20 .

    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.