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E. Deutsch, P. Tiwari, Y. Moriizumi:
"Housing Finance Arrangements, Wealth Positioning and Housing Consumption in Japan";
Vortrag: ENHR Housing Economics Group, Kopenhagen, Dänemark; 16.02.2006 - 17.02.2006.

This paper examines the behavior of households towards housing consumption in Japan. Home purchase is financed through equity and/or debt. Housing finance arrangements require an initial downpayment and impose monthly repayment commitments. Similar to many countries, households in Japan accumulate wealth through savings out of their current income and also receive private transfers from parents or relatives to finance downpayment. The paper uses the data from surveys conducted by Ministry of Land, Transportation and Infrastructure from 1992 to 2000. Based on these data around 12% of households have received private transfers in the form of cash to finance their home purchase. The accumulation spell of savings and private transfers continues until household has amassed sufficient wealth (referred to as luck in this paper) until it meets the threshold level necessary for downpayment requirements. However, households are heterogeneous and this causes self-selection in their behavior towards housing consumption. In this paper, the heterogeneity among households is defined in terms of liquid assets (savings and luck) in excess of the representative amounts. We categorise the households into four classes which consist of positive versus negative excess savings and positive versus negative excess luck. For each category we analyze the duration of the accumulation process using Weibull and Cox Proportional Hazard models. By comparing the outcome the paper sheds light on a possible process of growing wealth disparity. The paper ends with conclusions for financial policy.

Japan; Homeownership; Portfolio Choice; Survival Analysis; distribution of wealth