Matching in Housing Markets: The Role of Ethnic Social Networks

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Agarwal, Sumit; Choi, Hyun-Soo; He, Jia; Sing, Tien Foo
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore; Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST); Nankai University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhz006
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 3958
• 关键词: quotas

摘要

This paper investigates the role of ethnic matching between buyers and sellers in Singapore's public housing market. We find that sellers sell homes in blocks with a high concentration of their own (other) ethnic group(s) at significant premiums (discounts). Chinese sellers earn 1.7% higher premiums when selling homes to Chinese buyers in high Chinese concentrations housing blocks, but Malay sellers accept 1.6% discounts from Malay buyers in the same blocks. We find that the high volume of within-ethnicity transactions with the price discounts is supported by the ethnic social networks, that is, through ethnicity-specialized real estate agents.