The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership

This paper reviews the literature that describes the micro-level economic and social consequences of homeownership. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach and include studies from economics, sociology, geography, political science, psychology, and other disciplines. Our focus is on the set of consequences of homeownership in developed countries. Our list of potential outcomes of homeownership includes the impact on household wealth and portfolio choice, mobility, labor force participation, urban structure and segregation, home maintenance, political and social activities, health, demographics, self-esteem, and child outcomes. There is substantial evidence that homeownership has important effects on some household behaviors and outcomes. However, we find that much of the past 30-year's literature on consequences of homeowning is deficient from a theoretical or econometric perspective. We suggest solutions and identify research gaps present in the literature.     

Skill-biased technological change and homeownership

In the United States, the residential housing market went through important changes over the period from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. Although the aggregate homeownership rate was relatively stable during that period, the distribution of homeownership rates by age changed in remarkable ways. While younger households saw substantial declines in homeownership rates, the opposite happened for older households. In this paper, we argue that the skill-biased technological change (SBTC) that began during the 1970s has been an important factor behind the observed change in the distribution of homeownership rates by age. We build a life cycle model in which skills are accumulated on-the-job through experience: learning by doing. Early in life, households have lower levels of skills and therefore lower earnings. SBTC increases the returns to skill, widening the wage gap between young and old ages. As a consequence, it takes more time for young households to become homeowners given frictions in financial markets (e.g. downpayment requirements) and housing markets (e.g. large and indivisible houses), in line with consumption smoothing behavior. On the other hand, older households that could not afford a house before may now become homeowners, given higher returns to skill. Our analysis confirms this conjecture, namely, that SBTC shifts the distribution of homeownership from the young to the old.     

Alternative measures of homeownership gaps across segregated neighborhoods

The dramatic rise in the U.S. homeownership rate from 64% in 1996 to almost 70% in 2005 has prompted increased attention to the relation between homeownership and demographic characteristics of households. The recent rise and sharp decline of subprime lending will likely spur further interest in homeownership gaps. Statistical analysis of these differences or “gaps” in homeownership between white and minority households has evolved into a highly stylized comparison of differences in homeownership at the mean or the conditional mean. This study implements a quantile decomposition technique that identifies the unexplained portion of the gap not only at the mean, but at every percentile of the homeownership distribution. Results suggest that differences in homeownership gaps at the mean reflect a combination of small differences at the upper end and much larger gaps at the lowest end of the distribution of homeowners. This study also adds credit history to the factors that are used to explain homeownership gaps.     

Adaptation investments and homeownership

This article develops a model where ownership improves the efficiency of the housing market as it enhances the utility of housing consumption for some consumers. The model is based on an extended Hotelling–Lancaster utility approach in which the ideal variant of housing is obtainable only by adapting the home through a supplementary investment. Ownership offers low costs of adaptation, but has high contract costs compared with renting. Consumers simultaneously choose housing demand and tenure, and because of the different cost structure only consumers with strong preferences for individual adaptation of the home choose ownership. This article analyses the consumer’s optimization. The model provides an explanation for the observation that homeowners typically live in larger dwelling units than tenants. It also provides an explanation for a high price of housing services tending to reduce homeownership rates.     

烟草同城物流的信息系统建设

同城物流既可充分利用现有物流资源,又可避免因重复建设、投资和维护造成的浪费,是实现优势互补和高效、低成本运行的重要措施.     

A note on the socio-economic composition of the inner city

This paper considers the socio-economic structure of the inner area of Newcastle upon Tyne, in an attempt to contrast notions of a cycle of deprivation and the “housing trap” thesis. The use of discriminant analysis suggests that there exists no concentration of low-income groups within the inner city. The relationship between multiple deprivation and resource provision is examined with respect to this finding.     

美国的内城贫困问题

在简要介绍美国内城的概念以及相关背景的基础上,对美国内城的人口经济社会特征进行分析,运用相关的分析视角和理论假设,就美国内城贫困引发的公共服务问题展开讨论,最后从内城贫困的肌理、歧视性政策、社会保障政策、社区建设、公共政策、社会公正等方面进行了思考.     

借世博机遇塑城市文化促上海发展

本文根据政府营销的有关知识,借鉴企业文化营销的一些启发,具体阐述了城市文化在城市发展中的作用。为了借助世博机遇,更好地营销上海,发展上海,还结合世博会对上海城市文化进行了SWOT分析,对上海城市文化的发展进行了展望,并提出了几点粗浅的建议。     

完善城市整体功能是旧城改造的方向

城市的更新、改造是社会发展的必然 ,如何通过现状调查、分析、研讨 ,找出城市建设的症结 ,使城市趋于完美是城市建设者的历史使命。但现实中 ,片面追求经济效益 ,发旧城改造之财 ,只能使城市变成“崭新的旧城” ,只有按城市发展的固有规律去完善城市的整体功能才是旧城改造的发展方向。     

城市闲置土地的生成机理及治理

由于现行闲置土地治理体系的不完善,部分土地资源遵循一定机理转变为了闲置土地,加剧了土地市场的混乱无序状态,造成了资源和资产的浪费,严重阻碍了经济社会的可持续发展。通过制度分析方法,探究其内在机理、现实根源与治理架构,得出以下结论:土地闲置的政治成本和经济成本很小而利润巨大,进而在政府原因、企业原因和历史原因的直接影响下出现大量的闲置土地,因此要从完善法律制度建设,改变土地闲置巨大利差的现实入手,构建闲置土地治理框架,并在相关配套建设的支撑下有效解决闲置土地问题。     

Do homeowners achieve more household wealth in the long run?

Despite the public’s faith in homeownership as a vehicle for wealth creation, there are surprisingly few empirical studies of the independent impact of homeownership and its duration on household wealth accumulation. This paper provides the first empirical evidence that homeownership, after controlling for other drivers of wealth accumulation, is positively and significantly associated with wealth accumulation over time. Using the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, it examines the influence of housing tenure choices between 1989 and 2001 on household net wealth levels in 2001 after controlling for initial wealth in 1989, location, income, education, and other family and personal characteristics that might influence the rate of wealth accumulation. Importantly, the models used also control for the tendency of households to accumulate wealth between 1984 and 1989 (five years prior to the studied period). This approach is used to address the possibility that an unobserved variable—the propensity to save or accumulate wealth—may be associated with both the probability and duration of homeownership and the rate of wealth accumulation. All else equal, those who owned homes and owned for longer periods of time had significantly higher household net wealth by 2001. These results are compelling because house price appreciation over the period was near its long-run average while stock gains were above and real rent increases below their long-run averages. Hence, the findings are suggestive of a positive influence of ownership over long periods on net wealth, even during a period when alternative investments produced higher than normal returns and rents grew slowly. This is especially important because the overwhelmingly majority of households do not sell their homes shortly after buying them. In our sample, those who became owners typically owned for 7 years. Furthermore, most households that bought during a period of declining real home values in the early 1990s continued to own their homes for at least eight years and came out well ahead of those who did not own.     

Size of home,homeownership, and the mortgage interest deduction

This paper offers an empirical test of the effect of the mortgage interest deduction (MID) on both the extensive (own vs. rent) and intensive (size of home) housing purchase margins. Using state level differences in MID availability to identify, I examine this relationship using standard ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, and sample selection estimation techniques. I find the MID to be responsible for a 10.9–18.4% increase in the size of home purchased, but that no relationship exists between the MID and home ownership. These results imply an elasticity of home size with respect to changes in user cost between ?1 and ?1.4.     

Homeownership in the immigrant population

This paper analyzes the determinants of homeownership in immigrant households over the 1980–2000 period. The study finds that immigrants have lower homeownership rates than natives and that the homeownership gap widened significantly during that period. The differential location decisions of immigrant and native households, as well as the changing national origin mix of the immigrant population, helps explain much of the homeownership gap. The evidence also indicates that the growth of ethnic enclaves in major American cities could become an important factor in increasing immigrant demand for owner-occupied housing in many metropolitan areas.     

关于宜居城市的理论探讨

界定了宜居城市的概念,探讨了宜居城市在经济、社会、文化、生活、生态、安全诸方面的内涵,剖析了宜居城市的环境系统,认为宜居城市是由自然物质环境和社会人文环境相互交织、融合形成的一个复杂巨系统,提出宜居城市的七大判别标准--经济发展度、社会和谐度、文化丰厚度、居住舒适度、景观怡人度、公共安全度.阐述了宜居城市发展演变的一般性规律,旨在为中国宜居城市建设实践提供理论依据.     

Racial gaps in the transition to first-time homeownership: The role of residential location

Evidence suggests that African Americans wait longer to transition into first-time homeownership than white households with similar endowments. This paper relies on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine the contribution of residential location toward the black–white gap in first-time homeownership transitions. For a sample of young renters who first left their parents' home during the period 1978 through 1987, I estimate continuous time duration models that explain racial gaps in rental tenure durations prior to first-time homeownership as a function of individual, household, and location-specific covariates. I find that while several residential location characteristics, particularly those associated with the supply of affordable owner-occupied housing, impinge upon racial gaps in first-time homeownership transitions, most of the racial gap in homeownership transitions would be eliminated if blacks and whites had similar individual and household characteristics.     

都市农业的城市规划思考

都市农业是城市经济、生态、社会等系统的重要组成部分.但是,目前学术界对都市农业与城市可持续发展关系的研究很少,城市规划部门对都市农业也了解甚少.从研究现今世界上都市农业在城市规划中的现状出发,阐明都市农业在城市可持续发展中的重要地位,研究阻碍都市农业纳入城市规划的约束条件,试图提出可行的建议.     

近现代青岛城市规划与空间结构转型

回顾了青岛市城市规划的历史,分析了城市规划与城市发展以及城市空间结构的辩证关系,探讨了青岛市城市空间结构的未来发展构想.     

城市胁迫发展理论--城市可持续发展的生态学视角

将生态学的胁迫概念引入到城市的可持续发展领域中,探讨了城市的供应系统、生产系统、消费系统在面临资源、能源以及环境不足时产生的胁迫调整规律.同时对胁迫调整的作用力进行了分析,并进一步提出了城市胁迫发展的概念,对其核心问题进行了细致的阐述,从而为解决城市的可持续发展提供了一条行之有效的发展模式.