Housing market spillovers in South Africa : evidence from an estimated small open economy DSGE model

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of housing market spillovers on a small open economy, namely South Africa, using a small open economy new Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model which explicitly incorporates a housing sector. Using quarterly data covering the period of 1971:Q1–2015:Q3, we obtain the following set of results: (a) over the business cycle, the housing preference shock and the technology shock in the consumption sector drive most of the fluctuations of real house price; (b) the spillover effects of the housing market to the boarder economy are not negligible; (c) the central bank of South Africa has actively responded to house price movements over the past 45 years; and (d) the flexible exchange rate policy has helped South Africa maintain the macroeconomic stability to a large extent.