The benefits and costs of public housing in New York City

Public housing has been the largest program of housing subsidies to low-income families in the United States for fifty years. This is a comprehensive study of its benefits and costs. It contains the first estimates of the extent to which the program provides its participants with greater effective incomes than the poorest ineligible families and the first detailed analysis of the distribution of benefits among all eligible households. It provides significantly better estimates of the effect of the program on consumption patterns of participants, the effect of replacing public housing with cash grants, and the efficiency with which housing services are produced. Finally, it adds to few reliable estimates of the distribution of benefits among participants.     

Transformation bias in the costs and benefits of housing subsidies

This note investigates the importance of testing the validity of the Hicks-neutral technical progress assumption in the context of examining the substitutability or complementarity between capital, labour and energy in the UK industrial sector, It is found that the hypothesis of neutral technical progress must be rejected in favour of the non-neutral hypothesis: with technical progress thus biased to using both capital and energy but to saving labour. In addition, it is found that all three factors are substitutable for one another when non-neutral technical progress is modelled.     

国有银行改革的成本和收益

四家国有商业银行改革的成本和收益需从多角度来考察,从财务角度来看,四家银行通过剥离不良贷款,注资、股改上市带来巨大收益;从社会成本来看,高利差以及高不良贷款率意味着社会为国有商业银行支付较高的隐性成本;从历史角度来看,国有商业银行垄断国家金融业数十年,从理论上说,应当为出资人和国家贡献利润和超额利润,但是,高成本消耗了这种利润的大部分。总体来说,四家国有商业银行的改革是成功的,但并非四家国有商业银行的成功。     

Asymmetric adjustment costs and the dynamics of housing supply

This paper examines aggregate dynamics on the supply side of the housing market. The representative firm's intertemporal profit maximisation problem is considered under asymmetric adjustment costs. The hypothesis of asymmetric adjustment costs is also examined empirically using Irish data. Several interesting insights into the dynamics of housing supply are uncovered. These include support for the proposition that the adjustment costs of expanding housing output are greater than those associated with a contraction, evidence of threshold points beyond which adjustment starts to speed up and also the existence of a continuum of equilibria between these thresholds where no adjustment occurs at all.     

Local housing costs and basic household needs

The supplemental poverty measure (SPM)—which serves as an indicator of economic well-being in addition to the official poverty rate—was introduced in 2010 and explicitly adjusts for geographic differences in the cost of housing. By embedding housing costs, the SPM diverges from official measures in some instances, offering a conflicting view on family well-being. However, there is limited direct evidence of the impact of housing costs on household well-being, and virtually all of it focuses on food insecurity. This study examines the impact of local housing costs on household well-being using the “basic needs” data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Across a wide variety of specifications, no evidence is found that housing costs impact well-being. In contrast, local labor market conditions do impact the well-being measures in many specifications. The findings call into question one of the key motivations for the SPM—that geographic cost differences are a major factor for household well-being.     

The tax subsidy to owner-occupied housing: Who benefits?

This paper reexamines the question of the incidence and effects of the U.S. Federal income tax subsidy of owner-occupied housing. We demonstrate that supply elasticity considerations are crucial in determining the incidence and efficiency effects of the subsidy and that the hitherto neglected problem of the transfer of resources to subsidized owner-occupiers from unsubsidized renters is substantial. We provide estimates of the transfer and deadweight loss effects for the current program.     

Estimating the weight of opportunity costs in housing consumption

Behavioural economics suggests that people tend to neglect or underweight opportunity costs. However, strong empirical evidence for the size of the underweighting appears to be largely absent from the literature. What are the weights people attach to opportunity costs relative to out-of-pocket costs? In this article, I estimate the weight of opportunity costs in probably the largest economic decision that households make: buying a house. I show that homeowners attach approximately twice as much weight to out-of-pocket costs of their housing consumption than to the opportunity costs associated with this.     

On measuring the benefits of lower transport costs

Despite large amounts invested in rural roads in developing countries, little is known about their benefits. This paper derives an expression for the willingness-to-pay for a reduction in transport costs from the canonical agricultural household model and uses it to estimate the benefits of a hypothetical road project. Estimation is based on novel cross-sectional data collected in a small region of Madagascar with enormous, yet plausibly exogenous, variation in transport cost. A road that essentially eliminated transport costs in the study area would boost the incomes of the remotest households – those facing transport costs of about $75/ton – by nearly half, mostly by raising non-farm earnings. This benefit estimate is contrasted to one based on a hedonic approach.     

The costs and benefits of refuge requirements: The case of Bt cotton

Refuge requirements have been the primary regulatory tool to delay pest resistance to Bt crops. This paper presents a simple method to estimate the annual cost of refuges to producers, applying it to Bt cotton. It also examines broader welfare impacts, estimating how Bt cotton acreage restrictions affect producer surplus, consumer surplus, seed supplier profits, and commodity program outlays. The implications of grower adoption behavior — partial adoption, aggregate adoption, and refuge choice — for regulatory costs are examined. Empirical examples illustrate how providing multiple refuge options significantly reduces regulatory costs.     

Comparing the costs and benefits of diversification by regulated firms

Previous work on the diversification of regulated firms has focused exclusively on either the costs of cross-subsidy or on the welfare gains resulting from economies of scope. Using theory and numerical simulations, we identify conditions under which gains from economies of scope and increased competition tend to outweigh the costs of cross-subsidization. We use a perfect competition model of the unregulated market to examine tradeoffs under economies of scope. Effects of increased competition are assessed using Cournot models with linear and constant elasticity demands. Diversification tradeoffs depend upon magnitudes of variables that regulators should be able to estimate or otherwise judge.     

Longevity benefits and costs of reducing various risks

"Increased longevity is one alternative to lives saved as a measure of benefits derived from large-scale risk-reduction programs that demand resources of the total population. This measure, for several categories of risk, is presented in the context of the risks prevalent to society. Some estimates of the theoretical benefits due to the successful reduction of risks imposed by industry are provided. Cost-effectiveness values and these measures of program impact on longevity are graphically presented for several mortality-reducing programs."     

The costs and benefits of eastern enlargement: the impact on the EU and central Europe

Eastern enlargement of the EU is a central pillar in Europe's post-Cold War architecture. Keeping the eastern countries out seriously endangers their economic transition, and economic failure in the east could threaten peace and prosperity in western Europe. The perceived economic costs and benefits will dictate the enlargement's timing. There are four parts to the calculus – the costs and the benefits in the east and in the west. Here we break new ground in estimating the economic benefits of enlargement for east and west using simulations in a global applied general equilibrium model. Our analysis includes a scenario in which joining the EU significantly reduces the risk premium on investment in the east – with resulting huge benefits to the new entrants. We also review the existing literature on the EU budget costs and arrive at a surprisingly well-determined 'consensus' estimate, which we support with a new political economy analysis of the budget. The bottom line is unambiguous and strongly positive: enlargement is a very good deal for both the EU incumbents and the new members.     

The benefits and costs of ethanol: an evaluation of the government’s analysis

Ethanol production in the United States has been steadily growing and is expected to continue growing. Many politicians see increased ethanol use as a way to promote environmental goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and energy security goals. This paper provides a benefit-cost analysis of increasing ethanol use based on an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. We find that the cost of increasing ethanol production to almost ten billion gallons a year is likely to exceed the benefits by about three billion dollars annually. We also suggest that earlier attempts aimed at promoting ethanol would have likely failed a benefit-cost test, and that Congress should consider repealing ethanol incentive programs, such as the ethanol tariff and tax credit.      

Long-term appointment of central bankers: costs and benefits

Why do independent central bank boards have a reputation for more moderate policy than do elected governments, even if the board's members have been appointed by the current or former government? This paper gives an explanation for the case of a political world with ‘zeitgeist shocks’ on the electorate's preferences. If the median position of preferences inside the board determines the monetary policy, a trade-off concerning member term length arises: a longer term entails more moderation, while enhancing the likelihood of detachment from contact to the electorate's current preferences.     

The costs and benefits of additional information in agency models with endogenous information structures

We study the effect of additional private information in an agency model with an endogenous information structure. If more private information becomes available to the agent, this may hurt the agent, benefit the principal, and affect the total surplus ambiguously.     

The projected costs and benefits of water diversion from and to the Sultan Marshes (Turkey)

The Sultan Marshes in the Develi Basin, Anatolia, one of twelve internationally important wetlands of Turkey, have been severely affected by the construction of an irrigation project in 1988. Intensive use of surface and ground water in irrigation has caused more than a 1 m decline in water levels and has affected the wetlands' ecological characteristics. Previous studies indicate that Sultan Marshes will need more water to restore viable ecological conditions. In this study, we analyze how economic benefits from agriculture and wetlands would be affected if moderate amounts of water were diverted from agriculture back to wetlands in the Develi Basin. By estimating total and marginal costs and benefits associated with water diversions, we determined the optimum or economically-efficient amount of water diversion. When only direct-use values of the wetland (animal grazing, plant harvesting, and ecotourism) were included in the analysis, the optimum amount of water diversion to the wetlands was found to be 5.2 million m³ year^− 1 (165 L sec^− 1), which compares to about 62 million m³ year^− 1 (1,957 L sec^− 1) used in irrigation. When wastewater treatment benefits (an indirect-use value) were added, the optimum amount rose to 7 million m³ year^− 1. Overall, the analysis showed that water diversion from agriculture to the Sultan Marshes is economically preferable.     

Fiscal consolidation in the euro area: Long-run benefits and short-run costs

In this paper, we examine the macroeconomic effects of alternative fiscal consolidation policies in the New Area-Wide Model (NAWM), a two-country open-economy model of the euro area developed at the European Central Bank (cf. [Coenen, G., McAdam, P., Straub, R., in press. Tax reform and labour-market performance in the euro area: a simulation-based analysis using the New Area-Wide Model. Forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control]). We model fiscal consolidation as a permanent reduction in the targeted government debt-to-output ratio and analyse both expenditure and revenue-based policies that are implemented by means of simple fiscal feedback rules. We find that fiscal consolidation has positive long-run effects on key macroeconomic aggregates such as output and consumption, notably when the resulting improvement in the budgetary position is used to lower distortionary taxes. At the same time, fiscal consolidation gives rise to noticeable short-run adjustment costs in contrast to what the literature on expansionary fiscal consolidations suggests. Moreover, depending on the fiscal instrument used, fiscal consolidation may have pronounced distributional effects.     

New EU member states and the Euro: economic readiness,benefits and costs

All of the new EU member states (NMSs) have made a commitment to adopt the Euro. This essay considers the countries’ economic readiness to adopt the Euro as well as the economic benefits and costs of adoption. Paper applies a method suggested by Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1997) and finds that the changes of real effective exchange rates between the Euro area and the new EU member states follow the pattern predicted by the optimum currency area theory. This finding allows the construction of the readiness for adoption index for every NMS. The tangible benefits (for NMSs) of adoption are also examined in this essay. Analyses suggest that the costs of currency exchange and hedging against the uncertainty in foreign exchange markets account for about 0.08–0.012% of the countries’ GDP. In addition, countries that adopt the Euro might expect lower inflation and interest rates. This essay also examines the possible costs of adoption. These are in the forms of the lost ability to use monetary policy tools and set the level of seigniorage. Analysis suggests that many countries had given up their independence over monetary policy even before the accession to the EU. In addition, bigger NMSs have not used seigniorage as the source of fiscal income. However, they used exchange rate flexibility to depreciate their currencies during the recent crisis.