Credit Constraints, Job Mobility, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Property Reform in China
研究中国城市住房改革如何通过降低劳动力流动成本和缓解信贷约束，促进国有企业员工转向自雇创业。
This paper provides new evidence on the impact of private property rights and employer-provided housing on entrepreneurship. I find an increase in self-employment following a reform in urban China that allowed state employees who were renting state-owned housing the opportunity to buy their homes at subsidized prices. I develop a model of job choice to test two mechanisms that might explain how the reform increased entrepreneurship. I find evidence that the reform reduced labor mobility costs and alleviated credit constraints by allowing households to capitalize on the value of the real estate. © 2012 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.