Volume 65, Issue 3 pp. 654-677
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Did You Miss the Ride? Housing Boom and Household Wealth in China

Hongliang Sun

Hongliang Sun

School of Public and International Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, China

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Youmeng Wu

Youmeng Wu

School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, China

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Xianzhu Wang

Corresponding Author

Xianzhu Wang

School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, China

Correspondence: Rui Wang ([email protected])

Xianzhu Wang ([email protected])

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Rui Wang

Corresponding Author

Rui Wang

Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China

Correspondence: Rui Wang ([email protected])

Xianzhu Wang ([email protected])

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First published: 04 February 2025
Citations: 2

ABSTRACT

In the two decades following housing privatization, housing quickly dominated Chinese urban household wealth growth and inequality. We test hypotheses derived from a housing investment production function in China's unique context against multiyear microdata. During 2011–2019, housing wealth of different birth cohorts followed disparate paths, with clear spatial, socioeconomic and social identity-based polarization. The biggest winners in China's housing boom were the well-educated in superstar cities. 5%–10% of the young homeowners born since the late 1970s, especially those born since mid-1980s, seem most vulnerable in a housing bust or when facing a negative income shock.

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