Housing Prices, Mortgage Payments and Savings Behavior in Taiwan: A Time Series Analysis

After reaching its peak at the year of 1987, the saving rate of Taiwan dropped quickly in the late 1980s. At the same time, the real average housing prices in Taiwan had increased almost three times from 1987 to 1990. Why did the savings rate in Taiwan drop so quickly after 1987? Does it relate to the dramatic increase in housing prices? Although it has been confirmed that there is a negative wealth effect of housing price appreciation on savings, the estimated wealth effect on savings could be biased if the effect of mortgage payment (also known as forced savings) on saving is neglected. Applying quarterly data from 1981 to 2000 in Taiwan, we employ a time series analysis to compare two saving models, the traditional one and the one with forced saving. As we expected, the negative wealth effect of housing price appreciation on saving is smaller in the forced saving model than in the traditional saving model. By the estimated error correction models (ECMs), ignoring the impact of housing price appreciation on forced saving, the speed of short‐run adjustment in total saving would be significantly slower. For forecasting purposes, the forecast errors in ECM of the forced saving model are smaller than that in the total savings model.     

金融发展、技术进步与产业结构升级 —基于西部12省面板数据的经验分析

选取1994-2015年西部12省的数据,采用静态面板模型研究三者之间的关系。结果表明：西部地区金融发展对技术进步存在轻微抑制作用;金融发展对产业结构的调整作用主要体现在第二产业比例的提升;技术进步推动产业结构升级的作用并不明显。最后提出完善金融发展体系,强化金融支持力度;提高科技创新能力,依托技术进步培育新兴优势产业;积极发展现代服务业以促进二三产业协调发展等建议。