Gross national accumulation

Low birth rates, longevity, family disintegration, and other factors have reduced the size of the average household. At the same time household size is shrinking, new housing offers twice the floor space per occupant of old housing. Small households are inefficient users of space, utilities, furniture, and equipment. As these factors converge, the result is over consumption of durables and vast stockpiles of possessions just awaiting disposal when the baby boom generation passes on. The rightful heirs to these possessions are themselves accumulators, and will most likely have little use for what is left to them. What does the future hold for consumption, savings, and demand for housing? Booming flea markets, bigger homes as warehouses, a decline in consumption, or an epidemic of display and collection? Public policies have limited leverage on private behavior.     

公共住房运行模式新探索

住房问题是关系民生和社会稳定的重大问题,其中政府提供的公共住房是解决这一问题的重要措施.虽然住房市场化对我国的改革开放具有巨大的推动作用,但是公共住房在其具体运行机制中仍面临着许多困境.文章试图通过探索公共住房运行新模式来解决中、低收入家庭的住房问题.     

政府保障房供求补贴的不同效果

解决中低收入人群的基本住房问题是实现社会公平的基本国策之一。为了有效地实施保障性安居工程，通过构建数学模型研究在财政补贴率相同的条件下，住房消费补贴与住房供给补贴的成交价格、成交量与社会福利情况，可以发现这两者之间存在较大的差别，前者的成交价格、成交量和社会福利都高于后者，但前者比后者的财政补贴额更多。如果提高财政补贴率，那么前者成交价格会不断提高，而后者成交价格会不断降低，成交量都会呈现扩大趋势。成交价格、成交量和社会福利不但与财政补贴率及其补贴方式有关，也与住房的需求弹性和供给弹性有关。研究结论的政策意义在于，如果在政府财力有限、住房价格上涨压力较大的条件下，应当采用住房供给补贴；如果在政府财力相对宽松、住房价格上涨压力相对较小、依靠住房拉动经济增长的压力较大的条件下，则应当采用住房消费补贴，同时它还能实现公平与效率兼顾的目的。无论是采用住房消费补贴还是住房供给补贴，都应当增大供给弹性，减小需求弹性。     

完善住房保障体系努力实现住有所居

住房问题是民生问题、社会问题,也是经济问题、政治问题.进一步扩大保障性住房建设规模尤为重要.2004年以来,赣州抓好建设、分配、管理环节,构建了以廉租住房实物配租为主,经济适用房、棚户区(危旧房)改造、公共租赁房和廉租店铺等多种形式为补充的具有赣州特色的住房保障体系,较好地解决了中低收入居民住房困难问题.     

基于引入理想决策单元DEA的公租房配租方法研究

摇号是目前重庆公租房分配的唯一形式,由于不能区分谁更迫切地需要公租房的问题,不能更好地解决分配公平的问题,本文在建立申请人状况的评价指标系统基础上,采用引入理想决策单元的数据包络分析模型,考虑申请人的困难状况对申请人进行评价和排序,以比摇号更公平的方式分配公租房,这在目前公租房数量较少的情况下有更现实的公平意义.     

长春市低收入家庭的住房供应问题

住房问题是全社会普遍关注的问题，特别是低收入家庭住房问题更是全社会最突出的问题，它直接关系到人们生活水平的高低，对整个社会经济也产生巨大的影响。     

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.     

经济适用房的历史地位与改革方向

经济适用房曾被赋予了我国住房供应体系的主体的地位.五年多来,经济适应房建设取得了巨大的成效,也暴露出了严重的缺陷.本文从改革与发展两个角度研究了经济适用房的发展历程与成就,探讨了其内在缺陷,论证了在我国中低价位的商品房市场正在形成,并且在两年左右的时间内,低价商品房市场将与经济适用房市场现实地形成竞争.在此基础上,本文认为经济适用房作为我国住房体制改革的阶段性措施已初步完成了它的历史使命.随着客观条件的变化,经济适用房建设应逐步让位于普通的商品房市场.     

The impact of auctions on residential property prices

This study assesses whether the sale method in residential real estate markets – auction versus private treaty – is a determinant of sale price. Utilising a larger and richer dataset than previous research, we test for a price effect in auction sales in Sydney and Christchurch. When self‐selection biases are corrected for, using two‐stage hedonic regression analysis and a matched sampling procedure, we find no significant difference between prices of properties sold at auction to those sold by private treaty. This conflicts with the conclusions of previous research in the Australian and New Zealand housing markets, which have documented a price premium associated with auction sales.     

Multiracialism and Meritocracy: Singapore's Approach to Race and Inequality

This paper characterizes Singapore's efforts to tackle the problem of persistent racial inequality in terms of the notion of fair meritocracy. Singapore's race policy attempts to level the playing field through its unique race-based self-help organizations and a comprehensive, racially integrated, public housing program. Individuals are then sorted by the ostensibly objective mechanism of a standardized test based educational system. The social and economic implications of this policy are examined and, using summary data from the 1980 and 1990 censuses, the extent to which Singapore has been successful in creating a fair multiracial meritocracy is assessed.