Compared with housing investment, the consumption of China's housing market is distinctly insufficient. The high transaction information cost is considered as one of important reasons for the insufficient consumption. There is an urgent need to explore the forming mechanism of the housing transaction information cost, evaluate it quantitatively and reveal its law of variable time and space,which will provide theoretical and practical references for the transaction activities of both supply and demand sides and the macro-control of the government.Based on the transaction activities in the housing market with incomplete information, this dissertation proposed the estimating equations for the transaction information cost of both supply and demand sides. It uses the housing market data from 2000 to 2008 in Beijing and from 2000 to 2007 in Shanghai to build Hedonic models in order to estimate the parameters for transaction information costs and the degree of incomplete information in the housing market. On the estimated information costs, the thesis studies the influence of transaction prices on the transaction information costs and the laws of variable time and space of transaction information costs and the incomplete information degree.The theoretical analysis shows that incomplete information increases the information costs on both sides in the housing market. Due to the inability to obtain complete information, both supply and demand sides cannot achieve the best transaction price and will have transaction loses, which form the information costs on both sidesThe empirical study of the transaction information costs in Beijing and Shanghai indicates that (1) the demand side faces the information disadvantage in the housing market. The transaction information cost takes about 20% of the transaction prices for the demand side, while 14% for the supply side; (2) the housing transaction prices have sufficient influences on both sides'transaction information cost. The supply side's cost has a negative relation to the housing transaction price, while the demand side's cost positive; (3) the change of incomplete information degree in time series shows an initial increase followed by a decrease, and there is greater incomplete information degree in the center market of both cities; (4) there is slight difference of incomplete information degree between the two housing markets of Beijing and Shanghai, and the incomplete information degree in Shanghai is a little greater.This dissertation suggests: (1) improving the diaphaneity of the housing transaction and ensuring its timeliness and accuracy to reduce the transaction information costs on both sides; (2) conducting sufficient information searches for the demand side to weaken its disadvantage in the transaction activity; (3) widening the transmission channels of market information and improving the transmission efficiency to change the status quo of high incomplete information degree in housing market. |