Will home-ownership enhance allegiance? The effects of home-ownership on Hong Kong people's national identity and their mechanisms based on quasi-experimental evidence from HKPSSD

The social problems especially housing issues have continued to plague Hong Kong residents, affecting their allegiance and the stability. In light of the theoretical framework on institutional-psychological perspective, Hong Kong residents comprehend their own political, socioeconomic environments in terms of their personal characteristics and experiences. Based on these cognitions of their life, the resident sevaluate the overall performance of social development, and then construct their identity as well as source of legitimacy. To acquirein-depth perceptions of the internal mechanism of the residents' national identity, it is crucial to penetrate the effects of house-ownership to analyse the causes of these challenges in order to optimize the collaboration of social security systems. Utilizing the data set from HKPSSD and using the Home Ownership Scheme as an instrumental variable to exclude endogeneity, this study verifies the enhancement effect and transmission mechanism of house-ownership on the national identity of Hong Kong residents. As a result, house-ownership can effectively enhance Hong Kong residents' national identity. Further analysis also shows that house-ownership enhances psychological integration and ultimately constructs national identity of Hong Kong people by improving their life satisfaction. Finally, some policy implication has been proposed with perspectives of housing policy enhancement on national identity.