The co-movement and causality between housing and stock markets in the time and frequency domains considering inflation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between Chinese housing and stock markets. The authors discuss the three transmission mechanisms between the two markets: wealth effect, modern portfolio theory and credit-price effect. Moreover, the authors focus on the effects of inflation on the relationship between the two markets. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses wavelet analysis to test the housing and stock markets relationship both in the frequency domain and time domain. Findings - The empirical results indicate that housing prices have a positive effect on stock prices, and these have the same effect on housing prices. Moreover, this positive effect means that stock prices have a wealth effect on housing prices and these have a credit-price effect on stock prices. Research limitations/implications - These results provide information to financial institutions and individual investors in China to assist them in constructing investment portfolios within these two asset markets. Originality/value - The authors first use wavelet analysis to analyze Chinese housing and stock markets and to provide information both on the frequency domain and time domain. Moreover, the authors take the inflation factor as a control variable in the causal relationship between the housing and stock markets.