House Price and Consumption Inequality in China: Micro Evidence from CFPS
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Keywords
housing prices, consumption inequality, Kakwani index
Abstract
Based on microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2010 to 2022, this paper constructs the Kakwani index to measure household consumption relative deprivation and uses a high-dimensional fixed-effects model to examine the impact of housing prices on consumption inequality. The results show that rising housing prices significantly aggravate consumption inequality, and this conclusion remains stable after a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the unequal effect of housing prices is prominent in eastern China and the elderly group, but is not significant or even negative in central and western regions and young groups. This paper theoretically explains the transmission channels from the perspectives of wealth effect, purchase budget constraint and spatial differentiation, but does not conduct empirical mechanism tests. The conclusions provide micro evidence for the formulation of differentiated real estate regulation and consumption equity policies.
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