Journal of Development Economics · 2025 · [{"name": "Fenghang Li", "affiliation": ["Tsinghua University"]}, {"name": "Shenglong Liu", "affiliation": ["Tsinghua University"]}]
中文摘要
发展中国家的心理健康状况正逐渐成为一个重要的公共卫生问题。本文从家庭关系的视角，考察住房财富对个人心理健康的影响。利用中国“国六条”政策——该政策根据住房面积调整了首付比例和房产契税——所产生的差异化效应，我们采用断点回归（RD）设计，以隔离住房财富冲击对心理健康结果的因果影响。分析表明，经历正向住房财富冲击的个体抑郁率更低、生活满意度更高，且对未来更有信心。此外，我们发现住房财富冲击的效应对社会经济地位较低的个体尤为显著。本文进一步探讨了住房财富影响心理健康的机制，包括婚姻满意度提高、亲子关系增强、对子女教育的经济投入增加、消费模式变化、就业状态改变、闲暇时间增加以及健康风险行为减少。我们的研究结果凸显了住房财富对提升家庭福祉的重大影响，这一影响在发展中国家尤为显著。
Abstract
Mental health conditions are becoming a significant public health concern in the developing world. This paper examines the impact of housing wealth on an individual's mental health through the lens of family relationships. By leveraging the differential effects of China's National Six Policy, which modified down payment ratios and property deed taxes based on house size, we apply a Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to isolate the causal impact of housing wealth shocks on mental health outcomes. The analysis reveals that individuals experiencing positive housing wealth shocks exhibit lower rates of depression, increased life satisfaction, and greater confidence in the future. Additionally, we find that the effects of housing wealth shocks are particularly pronounced for individuals of lower socioeconomic status. The paper further explores the mechanisms through which housing wealth influences mental health, including improved marital satisfaction, stronger parent-child relationships, increased financial investments in children's education, changes in consumption patterns, alterations in employment status, more leisure time, and reduced health risk behaviors. Our findings underscore the substantial impact of housing wealth on enhancing household well-being, particularly in developing countries.