Location: 368A Heady Hall

Description: Tracy Turner (Kansas State University)

"Are Rising College Premiums Capitalized into House Prices?  Evidence from China"

Abstract:  Many areas in China experienced steeply rising house prices beginning in 2003. We test whether a nationally mandated change in local residency requirements that took effect in that year may have played a role in driving up house prices by tying access to Chinese universities to local homeownership status in the presence of a rising college premium. We generate a novel dataset that combines China university admission data with household and housing market data. We find evidence of capitalization effects and a sizable increase in the likelihood of homeownership in places with preferential access to China’s elite universities.