Examining structural changes in Asian offices market

It is complicated to measure the effects of various economic events on office markets within a non-parameter modeling framework. In response to this issue, a non-parametric statistical method-wavelet analysis is introduced in this study. Based on this innovative technique, we not only could detect the abrupt change points with a comparatively small data sample, but also could evaluate the impact from the abrupt change points by reconstructing the wavelet coefficient/de-noising the raw data, which had never been considered in previous studies of office markets. Our empirical results suggest that the wavelet reconstruction method, to some extent, makes it easier for the detection of the existence of structural change points. More interestingly, our findings also indicate that free market economies (i.e. Hong Kong and Singapore) are mainly influenced by the effects of global events, whereas the actual (net) impact on socialist economies (i.e. Beijing and Shanghai), depends on both the openness of the economies, and the magnitude of counter domestic forces put in place. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.