Regional heterogeneity and the trans-regional interaction of housing prices and inflation: Evidence from China’s 35 major cities

Abstract

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the regionally heterogeneous responses of housing prices and inflation to the monetary aggregates shock and the trans-regional interaction of housing prices and inflation, which has seldom been discussed in previous literature. Using a GVAR (Globe Vector Autoregression) model, evidence based on China’s 35 major cities for this framework is provided. The results show that (1) the housing price shocks have weak positive influence on CPIs (consumer price index); (2) the housing price shocks, especially the shocks in first-tier cities and eastern cities, have strong positive influence on domestic housing price dynamics and housing prices of other cities; (3) monetary aggregates shock has strong influence on the housing prices of first-tier cities and eastern cities, while weak influence on that of central and western cities. CPIs are barely influenced by monetary aggregates shocks. The empirical results are in accordance with the theoretical explanation. Based on empirical results, this paper proposes policy recommendations for stabilising housing prices.