| Consumption is an important driving force of national economic growth. Sincethe reform and opening-up in China, both urban residents’ consumption level andconsumption structure have improved steadily. At the same time, the abnormal inconsumption areas also becomes a feature of economic development in China. Frommid1990s, China entered a transaction period, and national economic conditions havechanged dramatically. In resident consumption areas, local residents’ consumptionbehaviors become more market-oriented; consumption uncertainties also increased alot; and consumer tendency of residents and national final consumption rate bothdeclined constantly. Among those uncertainties, house price has become a mostimportant factor which affects consumption and investment behaviors of localresidents obviously. That is owing to its unique nature and irreplaceable role inpeople’s life. In1998, Chinese government decided to abolish housing distribution inthe form of kind, and adopt housing distribution in the form of money, as well asstrived to develop financial support for housing, in order to cultivate real estate for anew growth engine and a new consumption item. From then on, the housingconstruction in China develops rapidly, and the housing investment scale expands alot. At the same time, urban resident’s housing consumer demand released rapidly.From2003, housing investment in our country turn out over hot, and the structurecontradiction between housing supplies and demands turn to more serious, whichleads a dramatic rise of housing price in the market, and also produces a complexeffect on urban residents’ consumption behaviors.This paper is on the basis of commodity supply-demand theory and consumptionfunction theory, following the main line of the process of housing price fluctuationeffecting residents’ consumption behaviors, finally centered on the status, paths,mechanism and impacts of hosing price fluctuation effecting residents’ consumptionbehaviors. At the same time, the paper use panel data analysis method to conduct anempirical test on the impacts of housing price fluctuation effecting residents’consumption in35cities all over China. The result indicates that house price makemore negative effect than positive effect on residents’ consumptions, and differentcities made different result. Finally, based on previous theory discussion andempirical analysis results, the paper put forward some suggestions on how to control the dramatic house price increase, develop supporting housing construction andguiding rational consumption and investment, introduce the idea of rationalconsumption and investment to local residents. |
