Asymmetric Income Segregation and Spatial Autocorrelation of Housing Rent

Chung Yim Yiu, Zheng Hua Huang and Yishuang Xu

ERES from European Real Estate Society (ERES)

Abstract: Income segregation is found to be a common phenomenon, which imposes far-reaching implications on housing and social policies. However, the focus has long been on its extent rather than on its distribution. This study investigates the asymmetry of income segregation and the relationship between income segregation and spatial autocorrelation of housing rent in Hong Kong, by studying the census data in 2001 and 2006, compiled by the Hong Kong SAR Government. The result shows that segregation is more intense among high household income districts, and the pattern is highly correlated with the spatial autocorrelation of housing rent. This phenomenon helps explain the underlying cause of income segregation. We contend that positive feedback effects are imposed between the quality of land attributes and income segregation, thus resulting in a co-reinforcing and self-organizing force between spatial autocorrelation of housing rent and household income segregation (analogous to the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction). The contention is tested empirically in Hong Kong, where is recognized as the most income-unequal city by UN-Habitat in 2008. Providing a very large-scale public housing policy but relying strongly on land sale income, Hong Kong provides a very good natural experiment for an empirical test of the asymmetry of income and segregation as well as the relationship between income segregation and spatial autocorrelation of housing rent

JEL-codes: R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2009_239

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