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The Gradients of Power: Evidence from the Chinese Housing Market

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  • Hanming Fang
  • Quanlin Gu
  • Li-An Zhou

Abstract

Using a large, unique dataset on the Chinese housing market, we propose to measure corruption using the price differences paid by bureaucrat buyers and non-bureaucrat buyers in the housing market. We find that the housing price paid by bureaucrat buyers is on average 1.05 percentage points lower than non-bureaucrat buyers, after controlling for a full set of characteristics of buyers, houses and mortgage loans. More interestingly, we find that the bureaucrat price discounts exhibit interesting gradients with respect to their hierarchical ranks, the criticality of their government agencies to real estate developers, and geography. We argue that the bureaucrat price discounts and the gradients of these discounts are unlikely to be driven by alternative explanations, thus they are evidence of corruption and measures of the market value of government power.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanming Fang & Quanlin Gu & Li-An Zhou, 2014. "The Gradients of Power: Evidence from the Chinese Housing Market," NBER Working Papers 20317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20317
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    Cited by:

    1. Fang, Hanming & Gu, Quanlin & Zhou, Li-An, 2019. "The gradients of power: Evidence from the Chinese housing market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 32-52.
    2. Zhao, Renjie & Chen, Jie & Feng, Chen & Zhong, Shihu, 2020. "The impact of anti-corruption measures on land supply and the associated implications: The case of China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Haoyuan Ding & Hanming Fang & Shu Lin & Kang Shi, 2020. "Equilibrium Consequences of Corruption on Firms: Evidence from China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign," NBER Working Papers 26656, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Germaschewski, Yin & Horvath, Jaroslav & Rubini, Loris, 2021. "Property rights, expropriations, and business cycles in China," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. Agarwal,Sumit & Morais,Bernardo & Ruiz Ortega,Claudia & Zhang,Jian, 2016. "The political economy of bank lending : evidence from an emerging market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7577, The World Bank.
    6. Qian Wang & Yanan Wang & Wei Chen & Xue Zhou & Minjuan Zhao, 2021. "Factors affecting industrial land use efficiency in China: analysis from government and land market," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10973-10993, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

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