Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2019

Abstract

We utilize data from the Singapore Life Panel© survey to empirically investigate the impact of housing equity on consumption of elderly households. Based on panel analysis, we find housing equity value has no significant impact on non-durable consumption for elderly people. The conclusion holds for a battery of robustness check. Moreover, heterogeneity analyses based on subsamples by age of household head, house type, and number of property possessed also show no significant impact of housing equity on consumption in general. Finally, we use scenario analysis to study the Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS), a novel housing equity monetization scheme which allows elderly households to unlock housing equity for retirement financing. We find LBS increases non-durable consumption by about only 0.69%, which may explain the low take-up rate for the LBS.

Keywords

Housing Wealth, Elderly Households, Monetization, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Economics | Gerontology | Real Estate

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

First Page

1

Last Page

27

Publisher

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series, Paper No. 10-2019

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

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