Abstract
Government emergency response capability is an important part of the government governance level, but its performance and role are difficult to be observed and tested. This paper investigates the role of government emergency response capability in regional governance, using the example of Chinese local governments. It leverages the external shock of the COVID-19 outbreak on the regional housing market and examines the moderating effects of government emergency response capability on COVID-19’s impact on housing prices. The study found that the COVID-19 outbreak caused differentiated negative shocks to the regional housing market in the early stage; there was a clear feedback mechanism between the housing market and the government emergency response capability, and good local government emergency response capability could effectively reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on the housing market in the later stage; compared with social prevention and control policies, economic support policies were more effective in the later stage of the pandemic. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the differentiated emergency prevention and control capability of local governments in the housing market.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
On January 20, 2020, Academician Zhong Nanshan, head of the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission, affirmed the existence of “human-to-human” transmission of COVID-19, and General Secretary Xi Jinping gave the first important instruction on the outbreak of neocoronavirus pneumonia on the same day. The State Council classified COVID-19 as a Class B infectious disease and prevented it according to Class A infectious disease on the same day. Based on this, this date was chosen as the origin of the local government policy.
References
Ahorsu, D. K., Lin, Y., Imani, V., et al. (2020). The fear of COVID-19 scale: Development and initial validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 27(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8.
Ahsan, M., & Sadak, C. (2021). Exploring housing market and urban densification during COVID-19 in Turkey. Journal of Urban Management, 10(3), 218–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2021.06.002.
Allan, R., Liusman, E., Lu, T., & Tsang, D. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and commercial property rent dynamics. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14(8), 360. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14080360.
Ambrus, A., Field, E., & Gonzalez, R. (2020). Loss in the time of cholera: Long-run impact of a disease epidemic on the urban landscape. American Economic Review, 110(2), 475–525. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190759.
Anundsen, A., Kivedal, B., Larsen, E., & Thorsrud, L. (2023). Behavioral changes in the housing market before and after the Covid-19 lockdown. Journal of Housing Economics, 59, 101907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101907.
Ashraf, B. N. (2020). Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 27, 100371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2020.100371.
Balmford, B., Annan, J. D., Hargreaves, J. C., Altoè, M., & Bateman, I. J. (2020). Cross-country comparisons of COVID-19: Policy, politics and the price of life. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76, 525–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00466-5.
Chen, Y. Y., & Assefa, Y. (2021). The heterogeneity of the COVID-19 pandemic and national responses: An explanatory mixed-methods study. Bmc Public Health, 21(1), 835. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10885-8.
Cheng, C., Barceló, J., Hartnett, A. S., Kubinec, R., & Messerschmidt, L. (2020). COVID-19 government response event dataset (CoronaNet v. 1.0). Nature human behaviour, 4(7), 756–768. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0909-7.
Cheung, K. S., Yiu, C. Y., & Xiong, C. (2021). Housing market in the time of pandemic: A price gradient analysis from the COVID-19 epicentre in China. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 14(3), 108. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14030108.
Chong, T. T. L., & Liu, H. (2020). How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect housing prices in China? MPRA Paper 102103. University Library of Munich. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/102103/1/MPRA_paper_102103.pdf.
Cowling, B. J., Ali, S. T., Ng, T. W., Tsang, T. K., Li, J. C., Fong, M. W., Liao, Q., Kwan, M. Y. W., Lee, S. L., Chiu, S. S., Wu, J. T., Wu, P., & Leung, G. M. (2020). Impact assessment of non-pharmaceutical interventions against coronavirus disease 2019 and influenza in Hong Kong: An observational study. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e279–e288. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30090-6.
D’Lima, W., Lopez, L. A., & Pradhan, A. (2022). COVID-19 and housing market effects: Evidence from US shutdown orders. Real Estate Economics, 50(2), 303–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.12368.
de la Campa, E. A., & Reina, V. J. (2023). Landlords’ rental businesses before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a National Cross-Site Survey. Journal of Housing Economics, 59, 101904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101904.
Duan, L., & Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), 300–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30073-0.
Fan, Y., Yang, Z., & Yavas, A. (2019). Understanding real estate price dynamics: The case of housing prices in five major cities of China. Journal of Housing Economics, 43, 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2018.09.003.
Francke, M., & Korevaar, M. (2021). Housing markets in a pandemic: Evidence from historical outbreaks. Journal of Urban Economics, 123, 103333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2021.103333.
Gamber, W., Graham, J., & Yadav, A. (2023). Stuck at home: Housing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Housing Economics, 59, 101908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101908.
Goldsztejn, U., Schwartzman, D., & Nehorai, A. (2020). Public policy and economic dynamics of COVID-19 spread: A mathematical modeling study. PloS One, 15(12), e0244174. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244174.
Gupta, A., Mittal, V., Peeters, J., & Nieuwerburgh, S. (2022). Flattening the curve: Pandemic-Induced revaluation of urban real estate. Journal of Financial Economics, 146(2), 594–636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.10.008.
Hale, T., Angrist, N., Hale, A. J., Kira, B., Majumdar, S., Petherick, A., Phillips, P., Sridhar, D., Thompson, R. N., Webster, S., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Government responses and COVID-19 deaths: Global evidence across multiple pandemic waves. PLoS One, 16(7), e0253116.
Hsiang, S., Allen, D., Annan-Phan, S., Bell, K., Bolliger, I., Chong, T., Druckenmiller, H., Huang, L. Y., Hultgren, A., Krasovich, E., Lau, P., Lee, J., Rolf, E., Tseng, J., & Wu, T. (2020). The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature, 584(7820), 262–267. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2404-8.
Hu, G., Li, P., Yuan, C., Tao, C., Wen, H., Liu, Q., & Qiu, W. (2020). Information disclosure during the COVID-19 epidemic in China: City-level observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(8), e19572. https://doi.org/10.2196/19572.
Ling, D. C., Wang, C., & Zhou, T. (2020). A first look at the impact of COVID-19 on commercial real estate prices: Asset-level evidence[J]. The Review of asset pricing studies, 10(4), 669–704. https://doi.org/10.1093/rapstu/raaa014.
Liu, S., & Su, Y. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand for density: Evidence from the U.S. housing market. Economics Letters, 207, 110010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110010.
Nicola, M., Alsafi, Z., Sohrabi, C., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C., Agha, M., & Agha, R. (2020). The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review. International Journal of Surgery, 78, 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.018.
Niu, Y., & Xu, F. (2020). Deciphering the power of isolation in controlling COVID-19 outbreaks. The Lancet Global Health, 8(4), e452–e453. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30085-1.
Pilinkienė, V., Stundziene, A., Stankevičius, E., & Grybauskas, A. (2021). Impact of the economic stimulus measures on lithuanian real estate market under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Engineering Economics, 32(5), 459–468. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.32.5.28057.
Qian, X., Qiu, S., & Zhang, G. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on housing price: Evidence from China. Finance Research Letters, 43, 101944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2021.101944.
Reback, R. (2005). House prices and the provision of local public services: Capitalization under school choice programs. Journal of Urban Economics, 57(2), 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2004.10.005.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2021). The proper role of government in the market economy: The case of the post-COVID recovery. Journal of Government and Economics, 1, 100004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2021.100004.
Tian, S., Feng, R., Zhao, J., & Wang, L. (2021). An analysis of the work resumption in China under the COVID-19 epidemic based on night time lights data. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(9), 614. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10090614.
Tiebout, C. M. (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economy, 64(5), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1086/257839.
Wang, B. (2022). Housing market volatility under COVID-19: Diverging response of demand in luxury and low-end housing markets. Land Use Policy, 119, 106191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106191.
Wang, Y., & Zhang, C. (2023). Impact of policy response on health protection and economic recovery in OECD and BRIICS countries during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health, 217, 7–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2023.01.012.
Weible, C. M., Nohrstedt, D., Cairney, P., Carter, D. P., Crow, D. A., Durnová, A. P., Heikkila, T., Ingold, K., McConnell, A., & Stone, D. (2020). COVID-19 and the policy sciences: Initial reactions and perspectives. Policy Sciences, 53(2), 225–241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-020-09381-4.
Wong, G. (2008). Has SARS infected the property market? Evidence from Hong Kong. Journal of Urban Economics, 63(1), 74–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2006.12.007.
Xiao, Y., & Torok, M. E. (2020). Taking the right measures to control COVID-19. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20(5), 523–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30152-3.
Yörük, B. (2022). Early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing market in the United States. Journal of Housing Economics, 57, 101857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101857.
Zeng, S., & Yi, C. (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the housing market at the epicenter of the outbreak in China. SN Business & Economics, 2(6), 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-022-00225-2.
Zha, H., Zhang, Y., Zhou, H., Tong, S. J., Wang, L., Zhang, Z., Tan, Z., Deng, L., & Hale, T. (2022). Chinese provincial government responses to COVID-19. Version 2.0. Blavatnik School of Government, Working Paper. https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-01/BSG-WP-2021-041-v2.pdf.
Zhu, W., Zhang, P., Li, P., & Wang, Z. (2020). Firm crisis, government support and policy efficiency under the epidemic shock: Evidence from two waves of questionnaire on SMEs. Journal of Management World, 36(4), 13–26. https://doi.org/10.19744/j.cnki.11-1235/f.2020.0049.
Zhu, X., Jin, Z., Managi, S., & Xun, X. (2021). How meteorological disasters affect the labor market? The moderating effect of government emergency response policy. Natural Hazards, 107(3), 2625–2640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04526-x.
Źróbek-Różańska, A. (2022). Stay or leave the city? Students and rented accommodation during COVID-19 pandemic. Cities, 128, 103788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103788.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71974174), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72004202), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. LY19G030005), and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (Grant No. 2108085QG303).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interest
The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Mao, F., Wang, Y. & Yu, X. The role of government emergency response capability in regional governance: evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak impact on the housing market. J Hous and the Built Environ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10065-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10065-7