The article presents and illuminates evidence, based on recent Hong Kong experience, indicating the existence of a "housing ladder effect" when housing prices increase or decrease. An increase of housing equity at the bottom of the ladder tends to translate into a trading up activity that will...

The authors find evidence that a public housing privatization program produced adverse effects on housing transactions and the economy in Hong Kong. A scheme announced in December 1997, offering tenants an opportunity to buy their units at deeply discounted prices, reduced public housing...