Paper Title
Housing Ownership and Housing Wealth: Evidences in Transitional China

Abstract
After housing was transformed from the most important welfare benefit to the most valuable private property through radical housing reform, housing allocation mechanisms in China are characterized by coexistence of market logic and socialist legacy, making Chinese housing system exhibits a transitional nature. This study examinesthese changes in private ownership of housing. It develops a conceptual framework toshedlight on unique implications for the distribution of housing wealth and distinct housing inequality patterns. It also draws empirical evidence to reveal the longer-term consequences of the housing reforms. Using the 2011 Chinese Household Finance Survey, this study shows that the reforms in the late 1990s aggravated housing inequality in current China. While emerging market mechanisms definitely contribute to housing inequality, socialist institutions such as the household registration (hukou) system continued to be significant. Findings of this study show that this political discrimination potentially became the most important source of housing inequality in post-reform China and its effects still exist nowadays. Keywords� Housing Ownership, Housing Wealth, Transitional China.