▋Journal of Development Economics

Volume 183, September 2026

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103837

住房财富、家庭关系与心理健康

心理健康问题正逐渐成为发展中国家面临的重大公共卫生挑战。本文从家庭关系的视角出发，系统考察了住房财富对个人心理健康的影响。中国“国六条”政策基于住房面积差异化地调整了首付比例和契税，本文利用这一政策构建断点回归设计（RDD），以有效识别住房财富冲击对心理健康结果的因果效应。

研究表明，获得正向住房财富冲击的个人，其抑郁发生率显著降低，生活满意度明显提升，对未来的信心也大幅增强；且这种改善效应在社会经济地位较低的群体中尤为显著。

进一步的机制分析表明，住房财富主要通过改善婚姻满意度、强化亲子关系、增加子女教育投资、优化消费结构、调整就业状态、释放更多闲暇时间和运动锻炼时间以及减少健康风险行为等多重渠道间接促进心理健康。

本文的研究结论强调了住房财富对提升家庭福祉的重要意义，为发展中国家相关政策的制定提供了重要的经验证据。

Housing wealth, family relationship and mental health: Evidence from China

Highlights

• This study explores the impact of housing wealth on mental health outcomes in developing countries, focusing on family relationships as a key channel.
• Using China's National Six Policy and a Regression Discontinuity (RD) design, we isolate the causal effects of housing wealth shocks on depression, life satisfaction, and future confidence.
• Positive housing wealth shocks lead to lower depression rates, higher life satisfaction, and increased confidence in the future, with particularly strong effects for individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
• The paper identifies key mechanisms through which housing wealth influences mental health, including improved marital satisfaction, stronger parent-child relationships, increased educational investments in children, changes in consumption, and reduced health risk behaviors.
• Our findings emphasize the important role of housing wealth in enhancing household well-being and mental health, especially in developing economies.

Abstract

Mental health conditions are becoming a significant public health concern in the developing world. This paper examines the impact of housing wealth on an individual's mental health through the lens of family relationships. By leveraging the differential effects of China's National Six Policy, which modified down payment ratios and property deed taxes based on house size, we apply a Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to isolate the causal impact of housing wealth shocks on mental health outcomes. The analysis reveals that individuals experiencing positive housing wealth shocks exhibit lower rates of depression, increased life satisfaction, and greater confidence in the future. Additionally, we find that the effects of housing wealth shocks are particularly pronounced for individuals of lower socioeconomic status. The paper further explores the mechanisms through which housing wealth influences mental health, including improved marital satisfaction, stronger parent-child relationships, increased financial investments in children's education, changes in consumption patterns, alterations in employment status, more leisure time, and reduced health risk behaviors. Our findings underscore the substantial impact of housing wealth on enhancing household well-being, particularly in developing countries.

Keywords

Mental health；Housing wealth；Family relationship