Impact Fees and Real Estate Prices: Evidence from 35 Chinese Cities

Local governments often charge developers impact fees to finance local public goods. This has been practiced in Chinese cities for more than two decades; however, no empirical studies have tested the effect of impact fees on real estate prices. Using a panel data set for 35 large- and medium-sized cities from 1998 to 2008, we find that impact fees lead to a significant increase in real estate prices. For a given city, an increase in impact fees by one yuan leads to an increase of about 5 yuan in the price of newly-built housing; a 1% increase in impact fees leads to an increase of 5 percentage points in the housing price index and 7 percentage points in the land price index.     

石油价格与股票市场的溢出效应——基于中美数据的比较分析

本文以中美股票市场和国际原油市场的数据为样本,用VAR模型和二元GARCH模型研究了中美股市价格和国际石油价格的收益率及波动的溢出效应。研究结果表明,中国股市价格和国际石油价格之间,既不存在任何方向的收益率溢出效应,也不存在任何方向的波动溢出效应;而国际石油价格的变化率对于美国股市收益率确有负向先导作用,并且两者之间具有双向的波动溢出。     

基于齐次马氏域变方法的中国股市价格泡沫检验

本文使用间接度量方法构建了股市价格泡沫的理论模型,得到了股市价格泡沫所满足的行为方程。在该理论模型下,本文利用Johansen协整检验方法从上证指数1996年1月到2007年12月的数据中剔除其理性价值成份,并进而建立马氏域变模型对其泡沫情况进行分析,结果表明上证指数价格泡沫主要集中于1996年3月到1997年6月、1999年全年以及2006年11月到2007年12月。此外,本文还通过对深证指数的分析检验了沪深两市股价泡沫的联动性,最后根据文章分析结果,提出了相应的政策建议。     

油价冲击、货币政策调整与产出波动——基于中国的经验证据

本文基于我国2001-2010年宏观经济月度数据,采用SVAR模型分析了国际油价波动时,央行货币政策在排除回应油价干扰与未排除干扰下的反应差异及油价波动对产出的影响。研究发现,在排除货币政策回应油价波动干扰后,通过脉冲响应函数反映的油价波动对产出的短期负面影响消失。方差分解结果显示,长期内产出波动由油价冲击和货币政策解释的比例分别为5716%和32480%,比排除干扰前分别下降了2569%和4560%。这说明我国油价冲击带来的经济衰退主要是因为货币政策及其回应油价冲击紧缩所致。此外,面对油价的短期冲击,CPI指数并未随着生产者购进价格指数上升而上升,产出也未发生明显的衰减;但在较长时间内,油价上升会因为相对价格的改变,而影响CPI水平和货币政策,从而对产出产生显著的负面影响。     

房地产税、市场结构与房价

本文在住房流量模型的基础上,构建了一个购房者和开发商的住房市场局部均衡模型,考察了完全垄断和完全竞争情形下房地产税与房价之间的关系。结果表明,无论何种市场结构,提高房地产税均导致房价下降;住房市场垄断性越强,房价越高,房地产税对房价影响越大。笔者对1996-2008年中国33个大中城市数据的检验发现,市场结构对房价影响大于房地产税。房地产税增长率每增加1%,房价增长率将减少0.03%;勒纳指数每增加1%,房价增长率将增加0.16%。房地产税与市场结构相互作用将使房价上涨,但影响微不足道。因此,对住宅开征房地产税,将对房价上涨有一定限制作用,但不能有效抑制房价上涨,而增强住宅市场竞争性、降低开发商垄断具有显著效果。     

分税制改革、财政分权和房价水平

1998年房改以来,中国城镇房价持续快速上涨,引起了社会公众的广泛关注。本文发现,较高的房价水平总是与较高的财政分权度联系在一起的,而较高的财政分权度又与1994年的分税制改革密切相关。本文采用2000-2008年的分省面板数据,研究分税制改革背景下财政分权度对房价的影响机制,为上述假说提供实证证据。结果表明,分税制背景下逐年扩大的财政分权度是导致房价持续过快上涨的不可忽视的制度性因素。在使用了不同的计量方法、识别技术以及控制了其他潜在影响房价的因素后,本文的估计结果依然是稳健的。     

Why is Price Dispersion Higher Online than Offline? The Impact of Retailer Type and Shopping Risk on Price Dispersion

When physically similar products, of similar quality, are offered by retailers both online and offline, we often observe that the dispersion in prices of these products online is greater than the price dispersion offline. This observation runs counter to early theories that suggested price dispersion online would be smaller than that offline due to the ease of search and information availability online. This paper investigates and provides an explanation for this puzzling phenomenon by examining the impact of two important drivers of price dispersion: retailer type and consumers’ shopping risk. Retailer type refers to whether a retailer is a pure offline, pure online, or dual channel retailer. Shopping risk is defined as the product of consumers’ perceived risk of shopping and the transaction uncertainty related to shopping at different types of retailers.A game-theoretic approach is adopted to model consumers’ price search and product purchase, as well as price competition within and across retailer types in online and offline markets. Equilibrium pricing strategies are derived for different retailer types competing for different consumer segments with different levels of perceived shopping risk. The impact of retailer type and shopping risk on online versus offline price dispersion are quantified, and conditions when price dispersion is greater online than offline are identified.Results indicate that price dispersion is greater online when the number of pure online retailers is sufficiently large and is increasing in the number of pure online retailers. In addition, a reduction in online shopping risk may actually increase online price dispersion. Results further suggest that even without any online sales, dual channel retailers should maintain their online presence for the purpose of information dissemination, which justifies the importance for pure offline retailer to incorporate webrooming strategies, where consumers can search for prices online but purchase offline.     

Is Abe's Fiscal Policy Ricardian? What Does the Fiscal Theory of Prices Mean for Japan?

The second arrow of Abenomics is flexible fiscal policy. However, it does not mean just fiscal stimulus as the Abe administration decided on the fiscal consolidation target of achieving a primary surplus by fiscal year 2020. Improving the primary balance implies making government debt more sustainable. Although the consumption tax rate was raised from 5% to 8% in April 2014, the Abe administration has decided twice to postpone increasing the consumption tax from 8% to 10%. In addition, a fiscal stimulus package was implemented. We use a Fiscal Stance Index to examine fiscal policy from the viewpoint of fiscal sustainability and a Markov switching model to examine fiscal policy from the viewpoint of the fiscal theory of the price level, and find that the Abe's fiscal stance is not Ricardian.     

Intraday market effects in electronic soybean futures market during non-trading and trading hour announcements

This article investigates market reactions to major United States Department of Agriculture announcements during non-trading and trading hours in the soybean futures market using microstructure data. Following report release, volume increases and remains elevated for up to 15 to 20 minutes. The volume spikes for the non-trading releases relative to the trading releases, but are identical after the first reaction. Report releases during non-trading hours cause a large spike in volatility at the onset of trading which subsides quickly. In contrast, releases during trading hours result in a smaller volatility spike, which extends for 5–6 min at a higher magnitude. Adjusting volatility by normal trading volatility indicates that volatility in trading hour release is higher in both immediate response and persistence. Return correlations provide little evidence to support systematic under- or overreaction in prices regardless of when the report is released reflecting the efficiency of the market.     

The revenue potential of a financial transaction tax for US financial markets

This paper estimates the revenue potential of a financial transaction tax (FTT) for US financial markets. We focus on analyzing the revenue potential of the Inclusive Prosperity Act that was introduced in the US House of Representatives in 2012 and the US Senate in 2015. The tax rates stipulated in this Act include 0.5% (50 basis points (bps)) for all stock transactions, 0.1% (10 bps) for all bond transactions and 0.005% (0.5 bps) on the notional value of all derivative trades. We examine three sets of evidence to generate potential revenue estimates: 1) the levels of transaction costs in US financial markets over time and within the range of financial market segments; 2) the extent of trading elasticities under various trading conditions; and 3) the current level of trading activity in US financial markets. Based on this evidence, we conclude that a US FTT operating at the tax rates stated above would generate about $220 billion per year, equal to about 1.2% of the current US GDP.