Expectations Heterogeneity and Excessive Price Sensitivity in the Land Market

This paper analyses price behaviour in the land market in which the Walrasian auctioneer is absent. Sellers are informed about the land value and post their asking prices; buyers are uninformed, have different opinions, and decide whether or not to accept the sellers' offers. In this market, sellers are "price-makers" with probabilisitic market power : they can influence the sale probability through their asking price. Price may be excessively sensitive to unexpected changes in market conditions. Moreover, buyer heterogeneity may accentuate the excessive price sensitivity. It has been shown that, the more heterogeneous their opinions, the more sensitive are prices.
JEL Classification Numbers: D40, D43, D82, D84, E44, G12.     

基于GIS的地价空间分布规律研究--以北京市住宅地价为例

利用北京市1998—2003年的普通住宅出让地价资料,采用统计分析和GIS空间分析相结合的方法,得到北京市普通住宅出让地价的系列空间分布图,在此基础之上揭示北京市住宅地价空间分布规律及其成因。分析结果表明:地价的分布在空间上既有连续性,也存在变异性。文章提出了地价梯度和地价指向,作为表征地价空间变化的两项指标,也存在明显的空间差异。     

监督制度、市场信息与协议地价-基于杭州市土地储备制度改革的经验

对杭州市1992-2001年城市土地市场中的367宗土地交易资料的分析表明,监督制度和市场信息是影响协议地价与招标、拍卖标底地价的主要因素.在土地市场发育不完善的1992年,标底地价与该宗地相对应的基准地价不存在差异.监督制度的不健全,导致1995年协议地价低于基准地价.监督制度比较完善、土地市场发育比较成熟的1999-2001年,协议地价、标底地价都显著的高于基准地价.     

市场和政府共同作用下的城市地价——中国城市的实证研究

本文根据单中心城市模型和中国城市土地市场若干特点建立了城市地价检验模型,并对中国地级以及以上城市地价进行了截面分析.计量估计表明,城市人口和收入是地价的重要决定因素,郊区土地价值和城市交通条件也影响城市地价;估计还表明政府通过控制城市土地供给和选择不同交易方式对城市地价有直接和间接的影响,而特定交易方式的影响犹为显著.分析结果还显示地价上涨最大的推动力是旺盛的需求.Robust回归方程估计表明上述统计检验结果是稳健的.     

对影响征地补偿价格相关因素的调查与分析

对河北省高碑店市10个村50位失地农户自1994年以来三次大规模征地的土地征用价格进行实际调查显示,土地征用后的用途是影响土地补偿价格的重要因素。另外,土地补偿价格是国家、用地单位、村集体和农户四者博弈的结果,土地补偿价格的高低与农民的自组织和实力相关。建议对不同用途的土地征用,在相同区位实行相同的土地征用和补偿价格,国家在向用地单位提供土地时,根据不同用途收取不同的出让税金,以保证政府收支平衡。     

Estimation of hedonic price functions with incomplete information

Existence of persistent price dispersion suggests that some buyers find lower prices through search and information acquisition, while some sellers charge higher prices by gathering information on potential buyers. If buyers are not fully informed of the lowest price available in the market they end up paying a price higher than if they had full information. Similarly, if sellers are not fully informed about the highest price they could charge, they too suffer by receiving a price lower than had they had full information. This paper develops a hedonic price model that incorporates the effects of incomplete information on both sides of the market and obtains estimates of the discrepancies between market prices and buyers’ maximum willingness to pay and sellers’ minimum willingness to accept. Correlates of such price discrepancies are also explored. We apply the technique to a data set constructed from the American Housing Survey, and find that incomplete information has had a significant impact on housing prices.     

Land price diffusion across borders – the case of Germany

ABSTRACT

Land market regulations are often justified by the assumption that activities of foreign and non-agricultural investors drive up prices in domestic land markets. However, empirical knowledge about the dynamics of agricultural land prices across borders is sparse. Using the German reunification as a natural experiment, we study the effect of the former inner German border on the dynamics of agricultural land prices in East and West Germany. We apply a land price diffusion model with an error correction specification to analyse spatial agricultural land markets. A novel feature of our model is its ability to distinguish price diffusion within states and across state borders. We provide evidence for a persistent border effect given that the fraction of spatially integrated counties is larger within states than across the former border. Moreover, we observe non-significant error correction terms for many counties along the former border. From a policy perspective, it is striking to realize that even 25 years after German reunification, pronounced land price differences persist. It is quite likely that price diffusion through existing borders within the EU would take even more time given language barriers, different institutional frameworks, and information asymmetries between domestic and foreign market participants.     

Taxation, collateral use of land, and Japanese asset prices

Japan experienced a significant increase in land and stock prices in the late 1980s and a subsequent reversal in these asset prices in the 1990s. I use a neoclassical growth model to determine how much of these asset price movements can be accounted for by the observed changes in output growth and land-related taxation. In the model, corporations issue land-collateralized debt to reduce their tax liabilities, and the government follows a land-taxation policy that is countercyclical to land prices. Without these features, the model cannot generate any significant change in land values, even with a permanent increase in the growth rate of the economy, because a permanent increase in the growth rate results in a comparable increase at the rate at which agents discount future returns. The collateral use of land and countercyclical land-tax policy introduce a substantial magnification mechanism for asset prices by reducing the required return on land. I calibrate the model to Japanese data, and conduct steady-state experiments and deterministic simulations. I show that if the observed increase in the growth rate of productivity and the decline in land taxes were expected to be permanent by market participants, then the model can by and large account for the movements in land and stock prices, but has counterfactual predictions regarding the behavior of capital. If agents expect the observed changes in the fundamentals to be temporary, then the model cannot generate a significant increase in these asset prices.     

财政分权、政府竞争与土地价格结构性偏离

财政分权背景下地方政府的财政约束和政府竞争是导致土地价格结构性偏离的根本原因。地方政府存在拉升商业用地和居住用地出让价格的倾向,金融宽松环境和投机行为盛行会使这两种土地出让价格存在正向偏离其理论地价的可能;而地方政府对流动性税基的争夺过程会导致工业用地出让价格低于其理论价格。工业用地价格与商业和居住用地价格正是在政府这两种反作用力量的作用下出现结构性偏离。     

Alternative Land-Price Indexes for Commercial Properties in Tokyo

The System of National Accounts (SNA) requires separate estimates for the land and structure components of a commercial property. Using transactions data for the sales of office buildings in Tokyo, a hedonic regression model (the “builder’s model”) was estimated and this model generated an overall property price index as well as subindexes for the land and structure components of the office buildings. The builder’s model was also estimated using appraisal data on office building real estate investment trusts (REITs) for Tokyo. These hedonic regression models also generated estimates for net depreciation rates, which can be compared. Finally, the Japanese government constructs annual official land prices for commercial properties based on appraised values. The paper compares these official land prices with the land prices generated by the hedonic regression models based on transactions data and on REIT data. The results reveal that commercial property indexes based on appraisal and assessment prices lag behind the indexes based on transaction prices.     

土地价格市场化对中国工业部门要素投入与技术选择的影响

土地价格市场化是中国要素价格改革的重要组成部分。文章基于2007-2013年中国工业部门面板数据,实证检验了工业用地相对价格变动对中国工业部门要素投入调整和技术进步偏向的影响。研究发现：短期内,东部地区工业用地相对价格上升抑制了工业用地需求,并诱致了非土地要素对工业用地的替代,但在全国层面和中西部地区并没有显著观察到土地要素相对价格变动的短期诱致替代效应;长期内,工业用地价格上升诱致了能源与物质资本节约型和知识资本使用型技术的使用,土地节约型技术进步特征仅在东部地区得到了显著支持,在全国层面和中西部地区都不显著,这与中国政府主导型的工业用地价格市场化改革特征密切相关。未来中国应以土地价格市场化改革为契机,重视土地价格杠杆对工业部门要素结构优化和技术创新的激励效应,推动工业转型升级。     

ARE THERE ADVERSE INFLATION EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH NATURAL GAS DECONTROL?

The Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) will decontrol gas prices in 1985, and there is concern about its inflation and output effects. In this investigation of these concerns, two misapprehensions are remedied. First, inflation is primarily a monetary phenomenon so that a rise in energy prices affects the price level, but any impact on inflation is temporary. Second, while analyses of NGPA have assumed that the price of gas will achieve parity with petroleum, they have neglected decontrol's effect on OPEC's optimal price, Our estimates of the decontrol effect demonstrate that energy prices will fall, not rise     

House price dynamics: Evidence from Beijing

To study the house price dynamics in China, this paper extends the traditional life-cycle model by incorporating land supply, regime shifts and government regulation factors. The models are estimated with an error correction framework using quarterly data from 2000 to 2007 in Beijing. The conclusions are as follows. (1) There exits a stable co-integration relationship between house price and fundamentals; land supply and financial regimes are also important determinants of long-run equilibrium house prices. (2) Short-run dynamics depend on changes of fundamentals and the adjustment process of housing market. Land supply has a significant impact on house price fluctuations while demand factors such as user costs, income and residential mortgage loan have greater influences. The adjustment speed of real house prices to the long-run equilibrium has been reduced significantly since 2005 which means exogenous shocks can cause prolonged deviation of real house prices from the equilibrium level.     

Bubbles in UK house prices: evidence from ESTR models

Recent movements in stock and house prices have led to an examination of the presence of bubbles. Whilst, there is extensive research on stock price data, there is relatively less for house prices. This paper uses a present‐value model for house prices to test for the presence of bubbles. The results support the presence of a non‐fundamental component within UK national and regional house prices. In particular, for the majority of series considered, evidence is presented of linear non‐stationarity within the fundamental present‐value relationship, and of non‐linear stationarity, implying the presence of a non‐fundamental, or bubble, component. Furthermore, evidence is presented that prices adjust quicker when they are below fundamental equilibrium, than when they are above fundamental equilibrium, i.e. there is downward price stickiness. These results support the hypothesis that house price dynamics can be characterised by price‐to‐price momentum. Finally, forecast evidence suggests that real prices are likely to adjust downwards and converge with fundamental value.     

Are price controls necessarily bad? The case of rice in Vietnam

Most economists' instinctive reaction to price controls is that they are harmful. Its strong enforcement results in shortages and resource misallocation, while weak enforcement often leads to black markets and high transaction costs. Given these instincts, this paper assesses the pros and cons of rice price controls in Vietnam using a multi-sector multi-household general equilibrium model. These price controls fix producer prices and allow government marketing agencies to sell at higher prices and hence are, in part, a revenue raising device. As such, they may be part of an efficient tax mix, particularly so since agricultural incomes and production go untaxed under the formal tax system. It is argued that such controls can act to dampen costly domestic adjustments in the face of volatile world prices. It is shown that this system can be supported as welfare enhancing under conditions currently prevailing in Vietnam.     

On Interregional Price Differentials

It is often observed that the land value is extremely high in very big cities while commodity prices are not. The objective of this paper is to consider interregional price differentials in a microeconomic framework by explicitly incorporating land for housing, and to conduct an empirical analysis of the interregional differential indices. It is revealed that across regions the CPI varies slightly, per capita income varies more, the housing rent varies still more and the land value varies the most in Japanese cities. I provide microeconomic reasons for the differences in these differentials.
JEL Classificiation Numbers: R00, R10.     

Environmental amenities and agricultural land values: a hedonic model using geographic information systems data

Remote agricultural lands, which include wildlife habitat, angling opportunities and scenic vistas, command higher prices per hectare in Wyoming than those whose landscape is dominated by agricultural production. Geographic information systems (GIS) data are used to measure recreational and scenic amenities associated with rural land. A hedonic price model is specified with GIS measures. It is used to estimate the impact of amenity and agricultural production land characteristics on price per acre for a sample of Wyoming agricultural parcels. Results indicate that the specification performed well across several functional forms. The sampled land prices are explained by the level of both environmental amenities as well as production attributes. Statistically significant amenity variables included scenic view, elk habitat, sport fishery productivity and distance to town. This analysis permits a better estimation of environmental amenity values from hedonic techniques. Improved estimation of amenity values is vital for policies aimed at open space preservation, using agricultural conservation easements and land use conflict resolution.     

Price search and spatial competition

In this paper we study a model where two spatially scattered sellers face a population of consumers dispersed over a given geographical area; they have to incur a transaction cost to place their purchase order. Moreover these consumers have imperfect knowledge of prices, but obtain full information about prices at the first shop they solicit. We study price competition between these firms. The main outcomes of our analysis are as follows. First we show that whenever a price equilibrium exists for given locations of firms, it will necessarily display price dispersion. Second we study location configurations which ensure the existence of a price equilibrium. Furthermore we show that when it exists, a price equilibrium is unique. Finally we analyze firms revenues when merchants anticipate the consequences of their locational choice on subsequent price competition. Then we find that there is an incentive for a firm to get as close as possible to its competitor.     

北京市城区住宅地价的时空变化规律

揭示大城市住宅地价的时空变化规律,有助于政府制定合理的房价调控和土地利用政策。传统统计和空间分析相结合的方法。2005年后新城区地价增幅明显高于老城区。五环外地区因充足的土地供给、交通状况的改善而逐渐成为住宅开发的重点。南部地区地价涨幅明显,地价"北高南低"现象有所缓解。北京的居住功能已经由老城区转至新城区,环线地价的空间布局呈明显的波浪推移状态。     

Gains From Price Rigidity

This paper shows that there are substantial gains from price rigidity in an imperfectly competitive economy. Firms can increase their profits by agreeing some markets as markets of long-term contracts, of which prices are determined in advance to other spot market prices. Although they determine prices non-cooperatively in both markets, the mutual commitment making some markets' prices predetermined induces a price–price spiral between firms, which results in substantial gains for both firms. These gains outweigh the cost of inflexibility arising from price rigidity even though demand fluctuation is large and marginal cost is increasing.
JEL Classification Numbers: E30, E32.