The real estate prices in urban China have been soaring sharply since the commercialization reform of the housing market in 1998, but have suffered from downward pressure recently. In addition to the peculiarities of the state-owned land system, newly built houses dominate market across the vast...

"In the United States, workers in cities offering above-average nominal wages -- cities with high productivity, low quality-of-life, or inefficient housing sectors -- pay 30 percent more in federal taxes than otherwise identical workers in cities offering below-average wages. According to...