A tale of two crises: Federal transfers and regional economies in Russia in 2009 and 2014–2015

We examine transfers from Russia’s federal government to the regions during the two recent economic crises. We show that while federal transfers in 2009 were large and targeted poorer regions, the 2014–2015 transfers were much smaller and not targeted. This policy shift was accompanied by a relatively greater decline in own revenues in the poorer regions and their worse economic performance overall. As a result, interregional budget expenditure inequality in Russia was significantly higher in 2014–2015 than it had been for years. This is important because regional budgets are responsible for a large share of investments, housing, education and healthcare.     

中国城乡居民住房不平等分析

随着中国城镇住房分配体制的转型,居民的居住条件在很大程度上依赖于家庭的收入水平,因此不断扩大的收入差距也在无形中影响着住房的不平等状况。基于2002年和2013年的城镇和农村的住户调查数据,本文从住房面积和房产价值两个角度分析中国农村和城镇居民住房不平等的总体状况。研究发现,在住房市场化体制建立和发展的过程中,虽然从财产所有权上的住房均等化有所提升,家庭居住面积有了很大的改善,但人均居住面积分布的不均等程度却进一步扩大。房产价值的不平等分析表明,虽然这一时期居民的住房财富高速增长,但城乡内部和城乡之间的房产差距都急剧扩大。基于回归分解的方法考察住房财富不平等的影响因素后发现,区域差异、收入差异和人力资本是造成居民房产价值分布差距不断扩大的重要因素。     

城乡交错区农村住房租赁市场:资源与收入配置效应

本文对杭州市城乡交错区农村住房租赁市场的资源配置与收入配置效应进行了详细分析。研究发现,村庄外来劳动力比重对住房租赁市场的发育影响较大;家庭人均住房建筑面积与农户出租面积关系密切。住房租赁市场的发育提高了宅基地利用效率,并一定程度上促进了住房投资。住房出租的租金收入在农户家庭收入总额中已经占到了不小的份额,这意味着住房租赁市场的发育有利于农户家庭收入的提高。     

“不期而寓”--青年城市配套综合体可行性调研报告

随着时代发展,独居、年轻化已成为租房人群的关键词。观念的升级和住房租赁政策的完善,使得90后的置业观悄然改变。经过市场调查,市面上还没有针对大学毕业生这一群体的长租公寓,多数是针对有一定经济能力的上班族。因此,大学毕业生的住房需求仅仅通过政府采取措施远远无法满足。论文从国家的宏观政策及市场微观细分因素中的人口因素、地理因素、行为因素等方面对“不期而寓”——青年城市配套综合体进行了分析,为项目的推进提供可靠的数据和科学性支持。     

A City Divided by Political Philosophies: Residential Development in a Bi-Provincial City in Canada

This paper examines the impact of two distinct political ideologies on the development of residential dwellings, particularly single-family residences, in Lloydminster, a bi-provincial city in Canada. Lloydminster is a city of about 22,000 which straddles the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The two provinces are recognized for the dissimilarities in their political orientations. These dissimilarities are reflected in different taxation policies, different Medicare and health insurance policies and different auto insurance policies, which have given rise to a quantitative and qualitative split in the market for single-family residences in Lloydminster. This duality of the housing market is manifested in Saskatchewan's "affordability" and Alberta's "desirability." Alberta's tax policies have attracted "place entrepreneurs" to build upscale residences on its side for homeowners in high income brackets, who benefit from its tax policies. Saskatchewan's health care and auto insurance advantages have attracted those with such priorities and with moderate incomes. It is contended here that while distinct policies may have contributed to an uneven bi-provincial housing market, the disparity between the markets has been sustained and reinforced by all players who construct the housing reality through myths and perceptions as well as interpretations of policies and their underlying ideologies.     

Fewer subsidized exits and a recession: How New York City’s family homeless shelter population became immense

Between December 1997 and May 2003, the number of families in New York City homeless shelters rose from 4315 to 9303. The 1997–2003 rise in family shelter population in this single city was greater than the combined total shelter populations of Texas and Florida in 2000. Why did this happen? From 1997 through 2000, New York was booming. Shelter population rose during the boom because the city slowed the rate at which it moved families into subsidized housing and it continued to rise after the boom because there was a recession. The population fell when the city stepped up placements into subsidized housing and the recession ended. The relationships are fairly complex. Macroeconomic conditions affect shelter population only with a lag. Placements into subsidized housing do not lure any considerable number of families into the system, but they keep those who are there longer, possibly by affecting the housing market.     

城市新就业职工住房保障问题实证研究——基于合肥市新就业职工的调查

调查表明,50%多的新就业职工住房困难。由于收入较低,新就业职工住房支付能力严重不足,30%多的新就业职工家庭缺乏租房支付能力;超过70%的新就业职工家庭缺乏购房支付能力。所以,要尽快将新就业职工纳入住房保障范围。首先,提高新就业职工收入水平,遏制住房价格过快上涨;其次,多渠道筹集住房保障资金;第三,积极创新相关配套政策,完善公共租赁住房准入和退出机制;第四,适时推出限价商品住房,利用优惠信贷政策,提高新就业职工住房支付能力。     

Forecast in Detail

The stronger than expected acceleration in economic growth through 2013 has started to generate an encouraging improvement in the public finances. This strength has been mainly observed in its impact on tax receipts, in particular VAT and stamp duty, which have been boosted by the strong recoveries in consumer spending and the housing market. This has led to central government receipts running 3.3% ahead of last year's level over the first nine months of the financial year, once the distortions caused by the transfers from the Asset Purchase Facility and the Swiss capital tax are excluded…     

Analysis of the Changing Influences on Traditional Households' Ownership Patterns

Sociological and economic forces have begun to alter ownership patterns in ways not yet captured by movements in the aggregate ownership rate. While demographic factors such as marital status and family structure remain influential in determining tenure choice, their impact has waned, particularly among the best educated households and those with rising real incomes. Labor market conditions, as evidenced by increasing returns to skill, are more strongly felt than ever before in the housing market. The impact on owning of being highly educated now rivals the influence of being married with minor children. Increasingly delayed ownership is a reality, even for traditional family units with 36- to 45-year-old heads that have not prospered in the labor market. The rising real cost of even relatively inexpensive suburban housing is also beginning to be reflected in a heightened impact for real family income on tenure choice. Finally, race currently is more adversely influential in determining suburban ownership for young, middle-aged minority families than it was in 1960, particularly if the household head is not well educated. We suspect this is due to racially disparate impacts of increasingly rigorous zoning regulations and higher impact fees in the suburbs.     

HOUSING CONDITIONS AND AFFORDABILITY IN HONG KONG

Housing in Hong Kong is of interest as an example of how improvements in living conditions have not kept pace with the territory's economic growth. This paper describes basic housing conditions in Hong Kong, and assesses them against the background of progress over time and within the context of housing conditions in other countries. Housing affordability is a growing problem, particularly for population groups that are marginal to the housing market. We discuss the emerging affordability crisis, especially for homeowners in the private sector, analyze the reasons behind it and review government policies to overcome the housing problems.     

A Comparison of the Determinants of Structural Quality between Manufactured Housing and Conventional Tenure Choices: Evidence from the American Housing Survey

This study employs data from the 1985-1989 American Housing Surveys to compare the cost and perceived structural quality of owned manufactured housing with traditional rented and owner-occupied housing alternatives. In general, manufactured housing is found to compare to traditional alternatives because of its low cost and households′ perceptions that its structural quality is relatively high. An ordinal probit model is used to examine the way in which specific structural attributes affect households′ ordinal ranking of overall structural quality. This experimentation suggests that the same factors are important across all tenure types in influencing perceived structural quality. In addition, it is demonstrated that, under the right circumstances, manufactured housing could be a cost-effective way to improve the quality of housing for low-income families who currently rent. Finally, suggestions are made regarding policy options and future research on manufactured housing.     

The effect of widowhood on housing and location choices

The number of elderly persons living alone is increasing and their influence on the housing market is getting larger. This paper investigates the effect of the loss of a spouse on housing and location choices. A partner’s death induces a decrease in income which may lead to downsizing. Widowhood may also reveal new preferences, such as the need to be close to care givers and health services. We estimate the effect of a transition to widowhood on housing consumption and location choices using the French Housing Surveys. Widowhood significantly increases residential mobility, especially at older ages and for those who have children. Mobile widows tend to live closer to their relatives but do not move to co-reside with a child. Housing and location adjustments are consistent with new widows moving to dwellings that are smaller, more often apartments and in the rental sector, and on average located in larger municipalities where services are more accessible. The housing demand of widows will be significant in the next 20 years, especially the demand for small dwellings.     

UNRAVELLED HOMES: Forced Evictions and Home Remaking in Jakarta

This article explores the contours of modernization in the unmaking and remaking of homes among evicted and resettled families in highrise housing. We examine the trajectories of forced eviction by drawing upon interviews with 17 individuals from nine evicted families who have transitioned from living in informal settlements to highrise social housing (rusunawa) in Jakarta. Drawing on two strands of literature—‘developmental idealism and the family’ from population studies and the critical geographies of ‘homemaking’—we argue that the demolition of houses is but an initial event in a long, quiet and subtle, yet profoundly defining, process of ‘upgrading’ families as part of ‘improving’ society, according to developmental logic. The disciplining of the urban poor does not end with the demolition of their houses, but rather continues as part of the fulfilment of shelter. This article attends to the slow unravelling of home hidden and embedded in post-eviction everyday lives, which are often overlooked because of the overt and violent brutality of forced eviction. While eviction can be seen as the violent visual expression of developmentalism, we argue that the relocation in rusunawa is where this ideal permeates into daily domestic life, making mundane activities a battleground for different ideals of ‘home’.     

Entrepreneurship in the informal economy: commercial or social entrepreneurs?

Recent research has revealed that a large proportion of entrepreneurs start-up their ventures operating on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. Until now, it has been commonly assumed that those who operate in the informal economy are exclusively commercial entrepreneurs. They are assumed to be rational economic actors who weigh up the benefits of operating off-the-books against the costs of being caught and decide to operate in this manner. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically this a priori assumption. Reporting evidence from a 2005/6 survey involving face-to-face interviews with 102 informal entrepreneurs in Moscow in Russia, the finding is that such entrepreneurs are not purely commercially driven. Examining their rationales, informal entrepreneurs are found to range from purely rational economic actors pursuing for-profit logics through to purely social entrepreneurs pursuing purely social logics, with the majority somewhere in-between combining both for-profit and social rationales. Neither do their logics remain static over time. What begins as a commercial entrepreneurial venture may become more socially oriented over time or vice versa. So too do their logics vary socio-spatially. Those living in deprived populations are more socially-orientated, whilst those in relatively affluent populations are comparatively more profit-driven. The outcome is a call for a more nuanced explanation of the complex and heterogeneous logics of informal entrepreneurs.     

The Effect of Public Social Housing on Households' Consumption in France

The French public social housing sector offers rents which are more than 60% below market levels. The “loss” of the public sector landlords, estimated from the rent they could get for their apartments at market prices, amounts to 37 billion Francs per year for the 3 million public social apartments in France. This allows the social sector tenants to consume 10% more housing services and 11% more of other goods. The corresponding surplus gain is around 34 billion Francs. The surplus loss for the collectivity due to these transfers is thus 3 billion Francs, 8% of the transferred sums. As compared to personal housing subsidies, which represent half this amount for the same tenants, the surplus gains are much less concentrated on the poorest part of the population.     

多套住房、可支付性和政策

随着经济全球化,现代交通、通讯方式导致的人口流动性增强,富裕群体热衷于购买休闲度假和投资用途的第二住宅,多套住宅规模呈扩大趋势。多套住房可以分为转卖和暂时空置、购买后出租、自住用途第二住宅。从短期来看,在一个供求均衡的市场,第三类第二住宅的冲击会导致中低收入阶层的住房可支付能力下降,前两者不影响。供不应求市场和供求均衡市场结果一样,但影响更大。供过于求市场则没有影响。从长期来看,结论依然和短期一样。可行的政策有加强商品房和保障性住房的供应,征收物业税减少住房的空置和闲置等,并提出了改进中国多套住房政策的建议。     

Public policy toward low income housing and filtering in housing markets

The article presents a model of a housing market in which dwelling units are constructed for relatively high income families and then gradually become available to lower income groups as they depreciate in quality and price. Assumptions are made concerning values for the parameters of the model, and the model is then solved using numerical methods. Alternative possible policies for increasing the housing consumption of the poor are simulated in the model.     

Housing equity,residential mobility and commuting

Highly productive economies require a flexible labor force with workers that move in accordance with the changing demand for goods and services. In times with falling housing prices, the mobility of home owning workers may be hampered by a lock-in effect of low or even negative housing equity. This paper explores the effect of housing equity on both the residential mobility and the commuting pattern of homeowners. We merge administrative registers for the Danish population and properties and get highly reliable micro data for our analysis. We find that low and negative housing equity substantially reduces residential mobility among homeowners. The negative effect of locked-in low equity families on labor market mobility may be mitigated by commuting. However, our results show that family heads in low or negative equity homes are not found to commute more than households with higher housing equity, but also that a considerable fraction of home owning family heads commute. The analysis of the joint decision of homeowners to commute or move shows that the option of moving, as an alternative to not moving and not commuting, is chosen by five to six percent of homeowners with low housing equity, while the option of not moving but commuting is chosen by 60%.     

房屋拆迁会刺激家庭的金融市场参与吗？——一个心理账户的分析视角

在心理账户的作用下,拆迁补偿款的发放使得家庭更加倾向于参与金融市场投资,因此房屋拆迁将会显著提高家庭的金融市场参与度。对此,基于中国家庭金融调查（CHIP2013）和中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS2018）数据,运用工具变量法,实证检验了房屋拆迁对家庭金融市场参与的影响,结果表明,房屋拆迁会在一定程度上促进家庭的金融市场参与,且这一效果在消费支出少和金融资产余额多的家庭中更加显著。同时,中介效应检验结果发现,在房屋拆迁促进家庭金融市场参与的过程中,家庭可支配收入发挥了部分中介作用。这意味着,在房屋拆迁补偿中,不仅拆迁户应该警惕过度参与金融市场的非理性行为,而且政府和金融机构也应该组织和提供不同形式的金融教育,提高拆迁户的金融素养,从而预防拆迁返贫的悲剧。