住房公积金制度的主观福利效应

The Effects of Housing Provident Fund on Subjective Wellbeing in China

全面认识住房公积金制度对家庭幸福感的影响关系着“为人民谋幸福”和实现“共同富裕”目标的可行路径,也对改革和完善住房公积金制度具有重要意义。文章基于2015~2019年中国家庭金融调查数据,实证研究了住房公积金制度对城镇家庭幸福感的影响。研究发现,缴存住房公积金能够显著提高家庭幸福感,且这一结论在矫正了样本自选择和内生性问题带来的估计偏误后依然稳健。机制分析表明,住房公积金制度为家庭提供了低成本的住房融资,显著提升了家庭购房概率、改善了家庭消费结构,从而有助于提高家庭幸福感。异质性分析显示,住房公积金制度对有房家庭、购买首套房以及有住房贷款的家庭幸福感影响更大。进一步分析表明,住房公积金制度显著提高了财务状况较差、经济脆弱和非正规就业家庭的幸福感,客观上有助于推动实现共同富裕。文章为住房公积金制度的主观福利效应提供了微观证据,对相关政策的制定与完善提供了参考。

A comprehensive understanding of the impact of the Housing Provident Fund(HPF)on family members'wellbeing is not only related to the realization of the goals of"seeking happiness for the people"and"common prosperity",but also of great significance to further reformation and improvement of the HPF system.This paper empirically investigates the impact of the HPF on family member's subjective wellbeing,viewing from the household head's self-reports,using data from the 2015-2019 China Household Finance Survey.We find that contributing to the HPF significantly increases family member's subjective wellbeing and this remains robust after correcting for estimation bias due to sample self-selection and endogeneity issues.The HPF system provides low-cost housing finance,which significantly increases the probability of house ownership and improves household consumption structure,thereby increasing one's subjective wellbeing.Heterogeneity analyses show that the HPF system has a greater impact on those owning a house,with only one house,and those paying house mortgage.Further analysis shows that the HPF system significantly improves individuals'wellbeing in households facing poorer financial conditions,economically vulnerable or employed informally,which therefore contributes to common prosperity.This paper provides micro evidence that the HPF system improves individuals'subjective wellbeing,which throws lights on related policy intervention.