How do housing price and sentiment affect consumption distribution in China?

Considering the lack of exploration of housing market sentiment in previous work, this paper uses quantile regression for panel data (QRPD) to investigate how housing price and housing market sentiment affect non-housing consumption distributions among owners and renters during their life cycles in China. The results show that the positive effect of housing price on consumption is stronger at the higher and lower parts of the distribution, and the differences caused by ages are more significant for owners. Furthermore, the housing market sentiment plays a significant role in owners’ and highest-consuming renters’ consumption. The heterogeneities in QRPD results suggest that the least square method provides less information. This study offers practical implication for governments in conducting different housing policy strategies for different households so as to help households benefit from the development of housing market and hence increase social welfare and equality.