The impact of public regulation on housing quality and on structural changes

This paper represents a theoretical investigation of profit maximizing behavior of a landlord under rent control. The situation envisioned is one that the landlord owns, free and clear, either two housing units ready to merge or one large one ready to convert into two small ones; in each case the units are already in place, such that capital costs are sunk and treated as bygones. Each unit has a technology of production of housing services with a fixed input of quantity of space (shelter) and a variable input of quality, that is affected by physical ageing (non-controllable) and by maintenance (controllable). At starting time t₀, we have a state of quality and a historical state of initial quality Q?_i, at the time the building was built, with the implicit constraint that Q_i(t) < Q?_i, for all t> t₀. The analysis addresses the general question of housing structural changes—conversion or merger—and how these changes are being accelerated under the threat of rent control.     

Barriers to homeownership and housing quality: The impact of the international mortgage market

International mortgage markets can play an important role in stimulating affordable housing markets and improving housing quality in many countries. Unfortunately, international mortgage markets are often less developed than in the United State. This lack of development often translates into lower homeownership rates or lower housing quality. The problems faced in international mortgage markets include but are not limited to (1) legal systems that delay foreclosure proceedings, (2) incomplete or weak financial institutions, (3) high inflation, and (4) cultural barriers to mortgage market development and homeownership.     

土地政策和城市住房发展

本文首先分析了北京的住房市场 ,然后对住房价格的构成及其变化进行了分析 ,结合微观经济学理论 ,总结出北京市房价高的原因 ,即 ,(1)房地产开发过程中没有不变成本 ,因而没有规模经济 ;(2 )根据基准地价系统 ,容积率决定地价 ,这一方面与西方城市经济学理论相悖 ,另一方面使房地产商没有经济利益驱动 ,资源没有得到合理强度地利用。最后 ,本文提出了进一步改革的建议和对策。     

The effects of government housing policies in a vintage filtering model

Long-run (and short-run) effects of low-income government housing policies are examined, in a model that treats housing as a durable good which declines in quality over time. Short-run and long-run market equilibria are characterized, rent subsidies are analyzed in detail, and results for other policies are presented.     

On the effect of fiscal zoning on land and housing values

The note is a comment on and extension of “The Effect of Zoning on Land Value,” by J. C. Ohls, R. C. Weisberg, and M. J. White. It is suggested that some of the results of that paper are very sensitive to the way in which the market for urban housing and the market for urban land are modeled. In the context of a more general model, it is shown that a major result of that paper, that land values may rise or fall, in a metropolitan area, in response to zoning, still holds, although the mechanism underlying the process is very different in the more general model. Furthermore, it is shown that the effect of such a zoning change on housing prices and consumer welfare is unambiguous; the former rises and the latter falls. Finally, it is proved that zoning by a small municipality within a metropolitan area will cause land and housing values to fall.     

A study of the impacts of zoning on housing values over time

Using a virtually unique data base for Vancouver, Canada, this study examines the ways in which various zoning classifications and land uses affect the sale prices of single-family residences over a 24-year period. The overwhelming conclusion is that while there are impacts, they are consistent in neither direction nor magnitude. The results suggest that the negative externalities that are generally assumed to exist may in fact not exist. As a result, the use of zoning to control the effects of such presumed externalities may not be justified.     

The impact of site characteristics on housing cost estimates

Hedonic housing regressions using micro data for owners and renters from the 1972–1973 Consumer Expenditure Survey are presented. By including tract characteristics and public goods in these regressions, evidence is presented which indicates sensitivity of the physical housing variable coefficients to the choice of included site-related characteristics. Furthermore, omission of public good variables can result in misleading, and possibly perverse, coefficients on access. Intermetropolitan housing cost estimates, however, are shown to be relatively insensitive to the choice of site-related characteristics.     

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets. Spatial Economic Analysis. Local economic growth tends to affect neighbourhood house prices unevenly. It has been observed that prime locations experience price hikes far in excess of the surrounding local area. Yet, this phenomenon is not well captured by existing economic models. This research provides a model of spatial and temporal interactions between housing and employment markets. The results show that rapid growth of employment centres increases house prices in neighbouring locations even after adjusting for fundamentals. It is concluded that spatial clustering of companies creates an option value for existing and potential employees that goes beyond ease of access for commuting purposes.     

住房保障政策:英国经验及启示

住房问题是当今中国面临的重大难题之一.要解决好低收入家庭的住房问题,在借鉴英国经验的基础上,需要加强住房保障制度的立法工作,研究、制定和实施分享式产权购房计划,资助低收入家庭购买经济适用住房以及普通商品住宅,帮助低收入家庭获得居住权,并为其提供一个财富积累的机会.     

The effect on housing quality of reducing the structure tax rate

The implicit market approach of Rosen is combined with a dynamic model of producer behavior to determine the conditions under which reducing the structure tax rate leads housing quality to rise. Specifically, it is found that, in the stationary state, quality will rise if capital is a noninferior input. Since it is argued that quality cannot be accurately measured, this conclusion is then tested with an unobservable variables model where quality is the unobservable. A comparison between the responses of quality and housing quantity to reductions in the tax rate is made.     

Distributional aspects of public rental housing and rent control policies in Spain

This paper studies the importance of the economic advantages and some distributional consequences generated by public and subsidized rental housing as well as rent control policies in Spain. Individual benefits are defined as the difference between the rent the protected dwellings would have in the market, minus the rent actually paid for them. The market valuation is obtained with an hedonic function estimated for the uncontrolled private sector. Data for the Madrid Metropolitan Area in 1974 show that for both policies, benefits are of considerable importance, while its distribution among beneficiaries is very unsatisfactory according to horizontal and vertical equity criteria.     

The impact of the low income housing tax credit program on local schools

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program has developed over two million rental homes for low-income households since 1986. The perception of deterioration in school quality has been a main reason for community opposition to LIHTC projects in middle- and upper-income areas. In this paper, we examine the impact of LIHTC projects on the nearby school performance using data on all LIHTC projects and elementary schools in Texas from the 2003–04 through 2008–09 academic years. We employ the longitudinal structure of the data to control for school fixed effects and estimate the relationship between the opening of nearby LIHTC on campus-level standardized test scores and performance ratings. We address the potential selection biases by controlling for preexisting trends in school performance prior to the study period. We find no robust evidence that the opening of LIHTC units negatively impacts the performance of nearby elementary schools.     

房价逆调控而上涨的政策性原因与对策

针对近期我国房价快速上涨、房地产商及高价商品房主导市场、住房投机愈演愈烈、中低收入阶层住房困难等问题,作者对北京房地产市场进行了调查研究,并从中发现了一些值得探讨的问题.本文通过对廉租房、经济适用房、商品房、出租房现状及相关政策进行客观分析,揭示了我国高房价的症结及一些政策方面的原因.文中以调查研究为依据,提出了强化政府责任、完善住房保障政策的个人看法与建议.     

The impact of fiscal centralization policies on education expenditure among Chinese local governments

Quality & Quantity - In 1994, the education policy goal for the Chinese government was that the education expenditure as a share of GDP should be at least 4% of GDP. However, this educational...     

Determinants of local housing growth in a multi-jurisdictional region,along with a test for nonmarket zoning

In the State of New Jersey, two rural preservation tools are paramount: (1) Zoning that sets a floor on the size of residential lots; and (2) the outright acquisition of open space or its development rights by government and nonprofit entities. The present study explores the effects of these two policies on the number of building permits issued across 83 municipalities in northern New Jersey. The empirical work is based on a widely-used urban development model that uses both monocentric and polycentric factors to allocate growth across a set of suburban communities. The study also develops a growth-based test for binding minimum-lot-size zoning, leveraging the fact that the 83 communities are in a single housing market and must serve the distribution of home and lot-size demand collectively, not individually. The study finds strong evidence of excess large-lot zoning, leading to the suppression of short-term housing growth in communities that specialize in this particular “product.” No firm evidence is found that residential development is attracted to the amenities that flow from either large-lot zoning or open space set asides.     

The impact of adjustment and stabilization policies on infrastructure spending in Central America

During the 1980s and 1990s the countries of Central America experienced protracted fiscal crises and debt repayment problems which resulted in the implementation of structural adjustment agreements. Apart from attempting to reestablish fiscal balance and to control inflation, the proponents of adjustment policies sought to enhance growth by de-emphasizing the wasteful aspects of state spending while maintaining public expenditures on physical and human capital, which were believed to promote private sector productivity. By comparing a pre-debt crisis period with the period given by debt crisis and adjustment, the study reveals that the shares of government spending on human and, particularly, physical infrastructure dropped precipitously during the adjustment period. At the same time, the shares devoted to defense and subsidy categories—as well as interest payments on external debt—generally registered notable gains. The experience of adjustment policies in Central America indicated that substantial discrepancies existed between the idea and the reality.