This thesis consists of three papers on econometric modeling of spatial dependence. The awareness of interactions between actors is fundamental for understanding property markets as well as the growth of regions. In both cases, neighbors and neighboring markets may stimulate or hamper growth of...

Urbanisation in China has long been held back by various restrictions on land and internal migration but has taken off since the 1990s, as these impediments started to be gradually relaxed. People have moved in large numbers to richer cities, where productivity is higher and has increased...

This paper seeks to understand the importance of changes in the fundamental factors of demand and supply, such as the urban hukou population, wage income, urban land supply, and construction costs, in explaining the rising residential housing prices in major Chinese cities between 2002 and 2008....

Housing price has increased dramatically in China during the past decade. The appreciation of house value could relax credit constraint and thus encourage entrepreneurship. However, a house serves as both an important investment channel and a prerequisite for marriage in China. The continuous...

Using unique survey data on agricultural traders in China in 2004, this study provides direct evidence on the significance of inter-regional trade barriers and their key components. Our major findings are as follows. (1) The trade barriers within China are fairly small, accounting for about 20...

We use the results of a survey taken in ten large Chinese cities to investigate several aspects of Chinese real estate investment. The survey provides significant (though not comprehensive) information on the personal and family characteristics and real estate holdings of the survey respondents....

High and rising prices in Chinese housing markets have attracted global attention. Price-to-rent ratios in Beijing and seven other large markets across the country have increased by 30% to 70% since the beginning of 2007. Current price-to-rent ratios imply very low user costs of no more than...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic significance of informal borrowing between friends and relatives in rural China. Guided by an economic model of household-production interactions, the paper provides results from a survey of over 1,500 households including...

This paper conducts an in-depth evaluation on the role of industrial agglomeration in productivity growth of China's industrial sector by exploiting large dataset of manufacturing firms active in 176 three-digit industries and in 2860 counties. We also complement our analysis with the 2004...

The nature and location of urbanization economies and their effects on productivity per worker in China are examined. Unlike previous studies, more accurate resident-based measures of urban scale from the 2010 census are used. The size of urbanization economies is similar to those in other...