China’s Housing Provident Fund: Homeownership and Housing Wealth Inequality

China’s Housing Provident Fund: Homeownership and Housing Wealth Inequality | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article China’s Housing Provident Fund: Homeownership and Housing Wealth Inequality Yidong Wu, Zhenguo Lin, Zhisheng Song This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7501140/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper examines the effects of China’s Housing Provident Fund (HPF) on homeownership, housing quality, housing wealth, and housing wealth inequality. Using nationally representative data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we show that HPF participation significantly increases the likelihood of homeownership, enhances housing quality in terms of location, condition, and space, and raises household housing wealth. More importantly, our results indicate that the HPF contributes to reducing housing wealth inequality: higher program coverage is associated with lower city-level inequality, while participants experience less housing wealth inequality at the household level. The redistributive impact is particularly pronounced among disadvantaged groups such as low-income households, and in cities with relatively affordable housing prices where loan ceilings are less restrictive. These findings highlight the HPF’s role in promoting inclusive housing development and reducing wealth disparities in urban China. JEL: D10; D12; R21 Housing provident fund Homeownership Housing wealth Inequality Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Competing Interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7501140","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":510038856,"identity":"0fe8d8ae-c2f4-42d7-a263-b86cf3ff8aa5","order_by":0,"name":"Yidong Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yidong","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":510038858,"identity":"56b23892-8640-4450-bcf0-f40d793ca8f6","order_by":1,"name":"Zhenguo Lin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAnklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdsYGhg82EiCmAZFamBkbGGekkaYFiHjSGEjQIt/M3PbYJsEisYG9eZsEUVoYmxnbjXMSJBIbeI6VEaeFmZmxTTr3B1CLRI4ZcVrYQFosQLbIvyFSCw9ICwNIiwQPkVokgFokexIkjNt40ootiNIi397+TOJHQp1sP/vhjTeI0gIHbKQpHwWjYBSMglGAFwAAuugic2All8UAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Florida International University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhenguo","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":510038859,"identity":"563a4319-e2a8-46da-a007-febceb45462d","order_by":2,"name":"Zhisheng Song","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KTH Royal Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhisheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Song","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-31 14:23:10","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7501140/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7501140/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":93534552,"identity":"af921831-b18d-40fa-8d7e-5b040547301f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-15 00:16:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2167753,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HPFProgram.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7501140/v1_covered_0b78eab7-e3da-414e-8442-8a61a0e474ca.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cp\u003eNo competing interests reported.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting Interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e","formattedTitle":"China’s Housing Provident Fund: Homeownership and Housing Wealth Inequality","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Housing provident fund, Homeownership, Housing wealth, Inequality","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7501140/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7501140/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper examines the effects of China’s Housing Provident Fund (HPF) on homeownership, housing quality, housing wealth, and housing wealth inequality. 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