Can Housing Provident Fund Deposit Promote Migrant Workers Buy Houses?

As a part of China’s social security system, the housing provident fund (HPF) plays an important role in solving housing problems. This paper analyzes the internal mechanism of how housing provident funds influence migrant workers’house purchase, and then uses the dy- namic monitoring survey data of the floating population in 2016 to conduct relevant empirical re- search. Based on the probit model, it is shown that migrant workers’participation in the HPF system has a significant positive impact on the purchase of housing, with a marginal effect of approximately 5．73%. After using the propensity score matching method and instrumental variable method to control the endogeneity, the conclusion above not only remains robust but the marginal effect also increases． The sub-sample results point out that the effect of HPF on house purchase is most pronounced among new generations of migrant workers, and those who are employed in provincial capitals and sub-provincial cities. Besides, the HPF does promote the house purchase of middle - income migrant workers, but it does not significantly support the lowest and highest income groups in buying houses. That means a system characteristic of “Both ends subsidize the middle” exists. Finally, the paper discusses the relevant policy implications.