On the Formative Mechanism of Land Price and Real Estate Bubble
分析了2003年以来中国房价持续快速上涨的原因，指出地方政府通过土地出让获取财政收入是推动房价和泡沫的根本因素，并讨论了现行土地出让制度（招拍挂）的作用。
Since 2003 there has been a consistent and rapid rise in China's housing prices. Using indicators such as the housing price - per capita income ratio, it is clear that extensive housing price bubbles have arisen, especially in some large cities. The factor behind the rapid and consistent rise in the housing prices (and in e- ventually causing price bubbles is the fiscal income that local governments can obtain from leasing the public land to commercial uses. To increase such fiscal income, local governments not only have the incentives to raise land prices, but also have the motivation to push up housing prices. As a result, housing prices rise and bub- bles grow. According to the analysis, however, the most fundamental factor that has caused housing price bub- bles are the existing system governing the lease of public land, whereby local governments reaps all the reve- nue. This, together with the particular mechanisms through which land is leased, namely, public bidding, auc- tion, and guapai (a combination of the former two) , provides a solid — foundation for the current escalating housing prices. Accordingly, any policy aimed to effectively resolve these issues has to begin with this micro — foundation, and has to focus on effectively breaking up the link between land prices and local governments' fiscal revenue.