The role of housing price mediation in transferring the effect of heterogeneous behavior of investors in the housing sector on Iran's economic growth

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the heterogeneous behavior of investors in the housing sector on housing prices and subsequently on Iran's economic growth during the period 2001:3 to 2020:3. For this purpose, first, the effect of herding behavior and overconfidence of investors on housing prices and then the effect of housing prices on economic growth was estimated by smooth transition regression (STR) method. Then, by calculating the Sobel statistic, the mediating role of the housing price in the transmission of the behavior of investors in the housing sector on economic growth was tested. The results showed that the housing price and economic growth functions have a threshold and two regimes. The imitative behavior of a previous period is the transition variable of the housing price function with a threshold equal to 0.0051 percent. The housing price is also a variable of economic growth function transfer with a threshold equal to 0.0266 percent The estimated coefficients of the first and second regimes indicate the asymmetric behavior of investors on housing prices. The estimation of the economic growth function showed that housing prices had a negative effect on economic growth in the first and second regimes, but this effect was strengthened in the second regime. The calculation of Sobel's statistic also showed that the housing price had a mediating role in transferring the effect of herding behavior on economic growth, but it did not act as a mediator in transferring the effect of overconfidence on economic growth.