Assessing the Performance of Chinese Land Lease Auctions: Evidence from Beijing

Abstract

This paper investigates the pricing impact of the Chinese land lease auction method when compared to non-auction methods. Using land lease transactions in Beijing from 2003 to 2010, we show that, after controlling for land characteristics, the selling mechanism matters and that the auction method yields a higher land lease transaction price than non-auction selling mechanisms. More importantly, bidder type significantly affects the auction premium. This evidence seems to indicate that the results of an auction might be predictable from the bidder composition of the auction.