Macroeconomics & International Finance Seminar Series Presents: Zhiguo He
October 28 @ 1:40 pm
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Macroeconomics and International Finance Seminar
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Time: 1:40-3:00 p.m.
Location: E2-499
Speaker: Zhiguo He
Title: James Irvin Miller Professor of Finance
Affiliation: Stanford University
Host: Michael Leung
Seminar title: Household Migration and Collateral Constraint: Cash-based Housing Resettlement in China
ABSTRACT: Collateral constraints reduce household migration to expensive locations by restricting financing for home purchases. This endogenous location choice can amplify the impact of relaxing borrowing constraints. Using China’s cash-based shantytown renovation program (2015-2018) as a natural experiment, we provide evidence that cash resettlement– by converting illiquid shanty houses into cash– facilitated household location upgrading and raised house prices in more expensive locations. A dynamic spatial model with collateral constraints confirms that endogenous location upgrading amplified the effect of cash transfer, raising lifetime housing expenditures by nearly 50%, and house price growth in low-tier cities by 9% in 2016-2020.
