Inside Job: Evidence From the Chinese Housing Market
40 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2018 Last revised: 18 Jun 2019
Date Written: June 17, 2019
Abstract
Using a comprehensive dataset of housing transactions in Beijing, China, we find that government officials are more likely than non-officials to buy housing units before government-imposed housing purchase restriction policy. We find that officials use their power to speed up the loan application process and pay higher prices to complete the transactions before the policy. Overall, the results suggest that officials trade on private information they gained during the policy-making process.
Keywords: Government Officials, Insider Trading, Housing Market, Housing Purchase Restriction Policy, China
JEL Classification: G14, O21, R31, R38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation