IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v83y2023icp841-859.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can a house resale restriction policy curb speculation? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Lan, Hao
  • Moreira, Fernando
  • Zhao, Sheng

Abstract

Speculative opportunity is commonly defined as the chance for agents to resell an asset at a higher price. Few previous studies have analyzed how speculation works in housing markets. In this paper, we use a two-stage resale restriction policy implemented in China as an exogenous shock on the speculation chance in the second-hand housing market. We find that a sudden reduction in the future resale opportunity directly causes a significant decrease in house transaction prices and trading volumes. The findings may help regulators strategically intervene in the housing market by adjusting the resale rights of home buyers.

Suggested Citation

  • Lan, Hao & Moreira, Fernando & Zhao, Sheng, 2023. "Can a house resale restriction policy curb speculation? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 841-859.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:83:y:2023:i:c:p:841-859
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2022.10.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056022002647
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2022.10.024?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. Riddel, Mary, 1999. "Fundamentals, Feedback Trading, and Housing Market Speculation: Evidence from California," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 272-284, December.
    2. Zabel, Jeffrey E. & Guignet, Dennis, 2012. "A hedonic analysis of the impact of LUST sites on house prices," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 549-564.
    3. Kaiji Chen & Yi Wen, 2017. "The Great Housing Boom of China," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 73-114, April.
    4. Yeon-Koo Che & Rajiv Sethi, 2014. "Credit Market Speculation and the Cost of Capital," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 1-34, November.
    5. Cifarelli, Giulio & Paladino, Giovanna, 2010. "Oil price dynamics and speculation: A multivariate financial approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 363-372, March.
    6. Yang, Jian & Tong, Meng & Yu, Ziliang, 2021. "Housing market spillovers through the lens of transaction volume: A new spillover index approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 351-378.
    7. Shum, Matthew & Sun, Wei & Ye, Guangliang, 2014. "Superstition and “lucky” apartments: Evidence from transaction-level data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 109-117.
    8. Ooi, Joseph T.L. & Le, Thao T.T., 2013. "The spillover effects of infill developments on local housing prices," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 850-861.
    9. John Y. Campbell, Robert J. Shiller, 1988. "The Dividend-Price Ratio and Expectations of Future Dividends and Discount Factors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(3), pages 195-228.
    10. Bing Han & Lu Han & Guozhong Zhu, 2018. "Housing Price And Fundamentals In A Transition Economy: The Case Of The Beijing Market," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1653-1677, August.
    11. Du, Rui & Zheng, Siqi, 2020. "Agglomeration, housing affordability, and new firm formation: The role of subway network," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    12. Shi, Shuping, 2017. "Speculative bubbles or market fundamentals? An investigation of US regional housing markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 101-111.
    13. Manera, Matteo & Nicolini, Marcella & Vignati, Ilaria, 2016. "Modelling futures price volatility in energy markets: Is there a role for financial speculation?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 220-229.
    14. André K. Anundsen & Karsten Gerdrup & Frank Hansen & Kasper Kragh‐Sørensen, 2016. "Bubbles and Crises: The Role of House Prices and Credit," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1291-1311, November.
    15. Wu, Jing & Gyourko, Joseph & Deng, Yongheng, 2012. "Evaluating conditions in major Chinese housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 531-543.
    16. Du, Zaichao & Zhang, Lin, 2015. "Home-purchase restriction, property tax and housing price in China: A counterfactual analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 558-568.
    17. DeFusco, Anthony A. & Nathanson, Charles G. & Zwick, Eric, 2022. "Speculative dynamics of prices and volume," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 205-229.
    18. Christophe André & Nikolaos Antonakakis & Rangan Gupta & Mulatu F. Zerihun, 2017. "Asymmetric Behaviour in Nominal and Real Housing Prices: Evidence from Advanced and Emerging Economies," Working Papers 201711, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    19. Englund, Peter & Ioannides, Yannis M., 1997. "House Price Dynamics: An International Empirical Perspective," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 119-136, June.
    20. Luciana Juvenal & Ivan Petrella, 2015. "Speculation in the Oil Market," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 621-649, June.
    21. J. Hirshleifer, 1975. "Speculation and Equilibrium: Information, Risk, and Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 89(4), pages 519-542.
    22. Kräussl, Roman & Lehnert, Thorsten & Martelin, Nicolas, 2016. "Is there a bubble in the art market?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 99-109.
    23. Ramazan Sari & Bradley T. Ewing & Bahadir Aydin, 2007. "Macroeconomic Variables and the Housing Market in Turkey," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 5-19, October.
    24. Ogonna Nneji & Chris Brooks & Charles W. R. Ward, 2015. "Speculative Bubble Spillovers across Regional Housing Markets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 91(3), pages 516-535.
    25. Shijun Jia & Yourong Wang & Gang-Zhi Fan, 2018. "Home-Purchase Limits and Housing Prices: Evidence from China," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 386-409, April.
    26. Jose Eduardo Gomez-Gonzalez & Juliana Gamboa-Arbeláez & Jorge Hirs-Garzón & Andrés Pinchao-Rosero, 2018. "When Bubble Meets Bubble: Contagion in OECD Countries," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 546-566, May.
    27. Edward E. Leamer, 2015. "Housing Really Is the Business Cycle: What Survives the Lessons of 2008–09?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(S1), pages 43-50, March.
    28. Yi Wu & Yunong Li, 2018. "Impact of government intervention in the housing market: evidence from the housing purchase restriction policy in China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 691-705, February.
    29. Junhong Chu & Yige Duan & Xianling Yang & Li Wang, 2021. "The Last Mile Matters: Impact of Dockless Bike Sharing on Subway Housing Price Premium," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 297-316, January.
    30. Karl E. Case & Robert J. Shiller, 2003. "Is There a Bubble in the Housing Market?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 34(2), pages 299-362.
    31. Andrew Adewale Alola & Gizem Uzuner, 2020. "The housing market and agricultural land dynamics: Appraising with Economic Policy Uncertainty Index," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 274-285, April.
    32. Patrick Bayer & Christopher Geissler & Kyle Mangum & James W Roberts & Andrew Karolyi, 2020. "Speculators and Middlemen: The Strategy and Performance of Investors in the Housing Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(11), pages 5212-5247.
    33. Sheridan Titman & Ko Wang & Jing Yang, 2014. "The Dynamics of Housing Prices," NBER Working Papers 20418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Kim, Kyung-Hwan & Suh, Seoung Hwan, 1993. "Speculation and Price Bubbles in the Korean and Japanese Real Estate Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 73-87, January.
    35. Haizhen Wen & Zaiyuan Gui & Chuanhao Tian & Yue Xiao & Li Fang, 2018. "Subway Opening, Traffic Accessibility, and Housing Prices: A Quantile Hedonic Analysis in Hangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, June.
    36. Patricia Fraser & Martin Hoesli & Lynn McAlevey, 2008. "House Prices and Bubbles in New Zealand," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 71-91, July.
    37. Zhenyu Gao & Michael Sockin & Wei Xiong & Itay Goldstein, 2020. "Economic Consequences of Housing Speculation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(11), pages 5248-5287.
    38. Chen, Carl R. & Lung, Peter P. & Wang, F. Albert, 2009. "Stock Market Mispricing: Money Illusion or Resale Option?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 1125-1147, October.
    39. Levin, Eric J. & Wright, Robert E., 1997. "The impact of speculation on house prices in the United Kingdom," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 567-585, October.
    40. Kholodilin, Konstantin A. & Michelsen, Claus & Ulbricht, Dirk, 2018. "Speculative price bubbles in urban housing markets," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 1957-1983.
    41. Diba, Behzad T & Grossman, Herschel I, 1988. "Explosive Rational Bubbles in Stock Prices?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 520-530, June.
    42. Cao, Yujin & Chen, Jidong & Zhang, Qinghua, 2018. "Housing investment in urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 212-247.
    43. Lee, Ji Hyung & Phillips, Peter C.B., 2016. "Asset pricing with financial bubble risk," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 590-622.
    44. Balcılar, Mehmet & Demirer, Rıza & Ulussever, Talat, 2017. "Does speculation in the oil market drive investor herding in emerging stock markets?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 50-63.
    45. Andreasson, Pierre & Bekiros, Stelios & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2016. "Impact of speculation and economic uncertainty on commodity markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 115-127.
    46. Chakrabarti, Sandip & Kushari, Triparnee & Mazumder, Taraknath, 2022. "Does transportation network centrality determine housing price?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    47. Andrew Adewale Alola, 2021. "Evidence of speculative bubbles and regime switch in real estate market and crude oil price: Insight from Saudi Arabia," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3473-3483, July.
    48. Eden Hatzvi & Glenn Otto, 2008. "Prices, Rents and Rational Speculative Bubbles in the Sydney Housing Market," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(267), pages 405-420, December.
    49. Zheng, Min & Wang, Hefei & Wang, Chengzhang & Wang, Shouyang, 2017. "Speculative behavior in a housing market: Boom and bust," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 50-64.
    50. Simon Stevenson, 2008. "Modeling Housing Market Fundamentals: Empirical Evidence of Extreme Market Conditions," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 1-29, March.
    51. Jose A. Scheinkman & Wei Xiong, 2003. "Overconfidence and Speculative Bubbles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(6), pages 1183-1219, December.
    52. Leone, Vitor & de Medeiros, Otavio Ribeiro, 2015. "Signalling the Dotcom bubble: A multiple changes in persistence approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 77-86.
    53. Rong Wang & Li Ye & Liwen Chen, 2019. "The Impact of High-Speed Rail on Housing Prices: Evidence from China’s Prefecture-Level Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-18, July.
    54. Charles C. Tu, 2005. "How Does a New Sports Stadium Affect Housing Values? The Case of FedEx Field," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(3).
    55. Sheridan Titman & Ko Wang & Jing Yang, 2014. "The Dynamics of Housing Prices," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 36(3), pages 283-317.
    56. Guido Cozzi, 1998. "Culture as a Bubble," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(2), pages 376-394, April.
    57. Kivedal, Bjørnar Karlsen, 2013. "Testing for rational bubbles in the US housing market," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 369-381.
    58. Tsai, I-Chun & Chiang, Shu-Hen, 2019. "Exuberance and spillovers in housing markets: Evidence from first- and second-tier cities in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 75-86.
    59. Spiegel, Matthew & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1992. "Informed Speculation and Hedging in a Noncompetitive Securities Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 307-329.
    60. Ciner, Cetin & Karagozoglu, Ahmet K., 2008. "Information asymmetry, speculation and foreign trading activity: Emerging market evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 664-680, September.
    61. Alex Chinco & Christopher Mayer, 2016. "Misinformed Speculators and Mispricing in the Housing Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 486-522.
    62. Abby Kim, 2015. "Does Futures Speculation Destabilize Commodity Markets?," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(8), pages 696-714, August.
    63. Fan Liu & Min Min & Ke Zhao & Weiyan Hu, 2020. "Spatial-Temporal Variation in the Impacts of Urban Infrastructure on Housing Prices in Wuhan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, February.
    64. Rose Neng Lai & Robert A. Van Order, 2020. "A Tale of Two Countries: Comparing the US and Chinese Housing Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 505-547, October.
    65. Carfì, David & Musolino, Francesco, 2012. "Game theory and speculation on government bonds," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2417-2426.
    66. Elizabeth Maynes & J. Ari Pandes, 2011. "The Wealth Effects of Reducing Private Placement Resale Restrictions," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(3), pages 500-531, June.
    67. J. Michael Harrison & David M. Kreps, 1978. "Speculative Investor Behavior in a Stock Market with Heterogeneous Expectations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(2), pages 323-336.
    68. Qin Xiao & Donghyun Park, 2010. "Seoul housing prices and the role of speculation," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 619-644, June.
    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. Wan, Junmin, 2024. "Transmission of housing bubbles among industrial sectors," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 692-701.

    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. ÅžimÅŸek, Alp, 2021. "The Macroeconomics of Financial Speculation," CEPR Discussion Papers 15733, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Xie, Zixiong & Chen, Shyh-Wei & Wu, An-Chi, 2019. "Asymmetric adjustment, non-linearity and housing price bubbles: New international evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    3. Gomez-Gonzalez, Jose Eduardo & Sanin-Restrepo, Sebastian, 2018. "The maple bubble: A history of migration among Canadian provinces," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 57-71.
    4. Julien Pénasse & Luc Renneboog, 2022. "Speculative Trading and Bubbles: Evidence from the Art Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 4939-4963, July.
    5. Alberto Madrid & Luis A. Hierro, 2015. "Burbujas especulativas: el estado de una cuestión poco estudiada," Cuadernos de Economía - Spanish Journal of Economics and Finance, Asociación Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 38(108), pages 123-138, Septiembr.
    6. Jack Favilukis & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Out‐of‐Town Home Buyers and City Welfare," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(5), pages 2577-2638, October.
    7. Daniel L. Tortorice, 2019. "Long-Run Expectations, Learning and the US Housing Market," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 497-531, October.
    8. Bordalo, Pedro & Gennaioli, Nicola & Kwon, Spencer Yongwook & Shleifer, Andrei, 2021. "Diagnostic bubbles," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 1060-1077.
    9. Angela Black & Patricia Fraser & Martin Hoesli, 2006. "House Prices, Fundamentals and Bubbles," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9‐10), pages 1535-1555, November.
    10. Favara, Giovanni & Song, Zheng, 2014. "House price dynamics with dispersed information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 350-382.
    11. DeFusco, Anthony A. & Nathanson, Charles G. & Zwick, Eric, 2022. "Speculative dynamics of prices and volume," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 205-229.
    12. Yang Hu & Les Oxley, 2018. "Bubbles in US regional house prices: evidence from house price–income ratios at the State level," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(29), pages 3196-3229, June.
    13. José Francisco Bellod Redondo, 2011. "Detección de burbujas inmobiliarias: el caso español," Contribuciones a la Economía, Servicios Académicos Intercontinentales SL, issue 2011-05, May.
    14. Renhe Liu & Eddie Chi-man Hui & Jiaqi Lv & Yi Chen, 2017. "What Drives Housing Markets: Fundamentals or Bubbles?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 395-415, November.
    15. Skrobotov Anton, 2023. "Testing for explosive bubbles: a review," Dependence Modeling, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, January.
    16. Tolhurst, Tor N., 2018. "A Model-Free Bubble Detection Method: Application to the World Market for Superstar Wines," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274387, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Konstantin A. Kholodilin & Claus Michelsen, 2019. "Zehn Jahre nach dem großen Knall: wie ist es um die Stabilität der internationalen Immobilienmärkte bestellt? [Ten years after a Big Bang: How stable are the international housing markets?]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 5(1), pages 67-87, November.
    18. Dedi, Valentina & Mandilaras, Alex, 2022. "Trader positions and the price of oil in the futures market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 448-460.
    19. Jian Yang & Meng Tong & Ziliang Yu, 2023. "Can volume be more informative than prices? Evidence from Chinese housing markets," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 633-672, August.
    20. Yanke Dai & Yangfei Xu, 2022. "Cheating under Regulation: Evidence from “Yin-and-Yang” Contracts on Beijing’s Housing Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-29, October.

    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:eee:reveco:v:83:y:2023:i:c:p:841-859. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    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.