Pre-marital homeownership as self-protection against divorce risks: Evidence from China's property division regime change

IF 5.2 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS 中国经济评论 Pub Date : 2024-07-14 DOI:10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102237

Yu Zhang , Ge Yang , Muhan Li , Mengjie Yao

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Abstract

This paper examines the effect of uninsurable divorce risks on individuals' pre-marital homeownership by using an exogenous shift of the property division regime upon divorce from an equal-division regime to a title-based regime in China. This shift in 2011 aimed at protecting individuals' pre-marital assets, leading singles who worry about divorce risks to purchase a home prior to marriage. We find that singles' probability of owning a house prior to marriage increases by 3.2% in response to a one standard deviation increase in the divorce rate of their residing provinces. This effect is greater for female singles and singles above 30. Furthermore, the effect is stronger for singles with higher incomes, and singles living in the province with higher house prices. The empirical patterns are consistent with singles adopting pre-marital housing as a self-protection mechanism if they perceive great divorce risks after the regime shift in 2011. Our results provide important implications that housing serves not only as a durable consumption or an investment, but also as a self-protection mechanism against uninsurable divorce risks.

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婚前购房是防范离婚风险的自我保护措施：来自中国财产分割制度变革的证据

本文利用中国离婚时财产分割制度从平均分割制向产权制转变这一外生因素，研究了无法保险的离婚风险对个人婚前购房的影响。2011 年的这一转变旨在保护个人的婚前财产，导致担心离婚风险的单身人士在婚前购房。我们发现，居住省份的离婚率每增加一个标准差，单身人士婚前拥有住房的概率就会增加 3.2%。这种效应对女性单身人士和 30 岁以上的单身人士更大。此外，对于收入较高的单身人士和居住在房价较高省份的单身人士来说，这种影响更大。这些经验模式与 2011 年制度转变后，如果单身男女认为离婚风险很大，他们会将婚前住房作为一种自我保护机制是一致的。我们的研究结果提供了重要的启示，即住房不仅可以作为一种耐用消费或投资，还可以作为一种自我保护机制，抵御不可保的离婚风险。

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来源期刊

中国经济评论 ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

10.60

自引率

4.40%

发文量

380

期刊介绍： The China Economic Review publishes original works of scholarship which add to the knowledge of the economy of China and to economies as a discipline. We seek, in particular, papers dealing with policy, performance and institutional change. Empirical papers normally use a formal model, a data set, and standard statistical techniques. Submissions are subjected to double-blind peer review.