Cultural Norms? Investigating the High Homeownership Rate in Taiwan
2006/04/18
研討會日期 : 2006-04-18
時間 : 15:00
主講人 : Prof. Lu, Huei Chung
地點 : B棟110會議室
演講者簡介 : Prof. Lu, Huei Chung 為台灣大學經濟系博士(1995)。
現為輔仁大學經濟系教授。
其主要研究領域為個體經濟學、個體應用計量、勞動經濟理論及家庭經濟學。
演講摘要 : From a cross-country comparison, Taiwan has one of the highest homeownership rates among all developed countries. This is not economically sensible since Taiwan's residents are not known for their wealth and income. We develop a theoretical model that includes the cultural norms as one of the factors that determine tenure choice, and use it to examine empirically with Taiwanese housing survey data. Define the proxy of cultural norm as "an individual has a mandatory responsibility to own his house within his life cycle," a practice that is often seen in ethnic Chinese culture. The empirical evidence shows that Taiwanese residents are heavily influenced by "cultural norms" over their tenure choices. Family heads with relatively low education backgrounds are more affected by the cultural norms in their tenure choices, after controlling other economic and demographic variables. We also find that norm effects are somewhat lessened when real estate prices become higher. Furthermore, we find that younger family heads are more attached to this "cultural norm effect," and have a higher homeownership rate than that predicted by the theory of life-cycle consumption. This exceptional high homeownership among youths, along with the generally existing norm effects to others, may partially explain Taiwanese residents' high homeownership rate.
