Income inequality and access to housing: Evidence from China

Chuanchuan Zhang ()

China Economic Review, 2015, vol. 36, issue C, 261-271

Abstract: Economic theory suggests that income inequality predicts housing price and housing affordability for low-income households. Employing Chinese urban household survey data, this paper examines empirically the relationship between income inequality and access to housing for urban low-income households. The empirical results demonstrate that higher income inequality within cities is significantly related to a higher housing cost burden, a smaller per capita living space, and lower housing quality for low-income households. Further studies demonstrate that the negative impacts of income inequality could be moderated by product differentiation in housing markets, as a higher degree of differentiation in the size of housing units corresponds to a smaller effect of income inequality on housing affordability.

Keywords: Income inequality; Access to housing; Low-income households; Urban China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 O18 R21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:36:y:2015:i:c:p:261-271

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2015.10.003

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