|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | HUD - PD&R |
| Abstract: | In the United States, researchers, policy analysts, and the general public have two rich sources of information on housing-the American Housing Survey (AHS) and the American Community Survey (ACS). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsored this project to help users exploit the housing information in these surveys effectively. This report documents the similarities and differences between the two surveys and compares estimates of key housing statistics from the two surveys. |
| JEL: | A00 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hud:wpaper:39143&r=ure |
| By: | Veronica Cacdac Warnock; Francis E. Warnock |
| Abstract: | We examine the extent to which markets enable the provision of housing finance across a wide range of countries. Housing is a major purchase requiring a long-term financing, and the factors that are associated with well functioning housing finance systems are those that enable the provision of long-term finance. Across all countries, controlling for country size, we find that countries with stronger legal rights for borrowers and lenders (through collateral and bankruptcy laws), deeper credit information systems, and a more stable macroeconomic environment have deeper housing finance systems. These same factors also help explain the variation in housing finance across emerging market economies. Across developed countries, which tend to have low macroeconomic volatility and relatively extensive credit information systems, variation in the strength of legal rights helps explain the extent of housing finance. We also examine another potential factor—the existence of sizeable government securities markets—that might enable the development of emerging markets’ housing finance systems, but we find no evidence supporting that. |
| Keywords: | mortgage, housing finance, emerging markets |
| Date: | 2007–04–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp221&r=ure |
| By: | HUD - PD&R |
| Abstract: | This report presents the findings from an exploratory study of the Housing First approach of providing permanent supportive housing to single, homeless adults with mental illness and co-occurring substance-related disorders. In recent years, Congress and the leadership of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have encouraged the development of permanent housing for homeless people. Concurrently, there has been a shift toward committing a greater proportion of HUD McKinney-Vento Act funds toward housing as opposed to supportive services and an increase in attention toward the hardest-to-serve, chronically homeless population, a substantial number of whom are mentally ill. Because it addresses this population and its needs, the Housing First approach is currently experiencing increased attention as a method of serving this population consistent with the above-stated goals. |
| JEL: | I38 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hud:wpaper:39144&r=ure |
| By: | Balázs Égert; Dubravko Mihaljek |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of house prices in eight transition economies of central and eastern Europe (CEE) and 19 OECD countries. The main question addressed is whether the conventional fundamental determinants of house prices, such as GDP per capita, real interest rates, housing credit and demographic factors, have driven observed house prices in CEE. We show that house prices in CEE are determined to a large extent by the underlying conventional fundamentals and some transition-specific factors, in particular institutional development of housing markets and housing finance and quality effects. |
| Keywords: | House prices, housing market, transition economies, central and eastern Europe, OECD countries |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:236&r=ure |
| By: | David C. Maré (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Steven Stillman (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Melanie Morten (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | Twenty-three percent of New Zealand's population is foreign-born and forty percent of migrants have arrived in the past ten years. Newly arriving migrants tend to settle in spatially concentrated areas and this is especially true in New Zealand. This paper uses census data to examine the characteristics of local areas that attract new migrants and gauges the extent to which migrants are choosing to settle where there are the best labour market opportunities as opposed to where there are already established migrant networks. We estimate McFadden's choice models to examine both the initial location choice made by new migrants and the internal mobility of this cohort of migrants five years later. This allows us to examine whether the factors that affect settlement decision change as migrants spend more time in New Zealand. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Settlement, Mobility, New Zealand |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:07_11&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Noel (Department of Economics, University of California - San Diego); Emek Basker (University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of Wal-Mart's entry into the grocery market using a unique stor-level price panel data set. We use OLS and two IV specifications to estimate the effect of Wal-Mart's entry on competitors' prices of 24 grocery items across several categories. Wal-Mart's price advantage over competitors for these products averages approximately 10%. On average, competitors' response to Wal-Mart's entry is a price reduction of 1-1.2%, mostly due to smaller-scale competitors: the response of the "big three" supermarket chains (Alberson's, Safeway, and Kroger) is less than half that size. We confirm our results using a falsification exercises, in which we test for Wal-Mart's effect on prices of services that it does not provide, such as movie tickets and dry cleaning services. |
| Keywords: | Wal-Mart, Retail Prices, Supermarkets, Price Competition, |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:2007-03&r=ure |
| By: | Natália Sátyro; Sergei Soares |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the annual School Census to describe the physical and human resource infrastructure available to Brazilian primary schools. We investigate access to basic services such as water, electricity, and sewage; facilities available in the school; existence of a library or reading room; information and communication technology; and, finally teacher qualification. In the case of facilities and library description we were forced to create an index, given the volume of information available in the School Census each year. Our first conclusion is that material schooling conditions improved greatly between 1997 and 2005 but educational attainment and achievement did not change much during this period. Second, there are no major differences in resources between state and private school, although there are large differences between these two and municipal schools. This is again a curious result since there are very small differences in attainment and achievement between state and municipal schools but large differences between state and private schools. These two results put in doubt the impacts that improving infrastructure will have upon educational results. Our last finding, however, leans in the opposite direction. Rural schools suffer both very poor material conditions and very poor educational results. This suggests that perhaps improving material conditions in the very worse schools, which are almost all rural, may have strong impacts upon attainment or achievement. Finally, an important conclusion of this text is that more investigation is urgently needed investigating the link between infrastructure data from administrative sources and educational results. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:1267&r=ure |
| By: | Andrew Grodner (East Carolina University); Thomas J. Kniesner (Syracuse University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Our econometric research allows for a possible response of a person's hours worked to hours typically worked by members of a multidimensional labor market reference group that considers demographics and geographic location. Instrumental variables estimates of the canonical labor supply model expanded to permit social interactions pass a battery of specification checks and indicate positive and economically important spillovers for adult men. Ignoring or incorrectly considering social interactions in male labor supply can misestimate the response to tax reform by as much as 60 percent. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, social interactions, reference group, instrumental variables, social multiplier, PSID |
| JEL: | J22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3034&r=ure |
| By: | Giuseppe Arbia; Marco Bee; Giuseppe Espa |
| Abstract: | In this paper we compare the relative efficiency of different forecasting methods of space-time series when variables are spatially and temporally correlated. We consider the case of a space-time series aggregated into a single time series and the more general instance of a space-time series aggregated into a coarser spatial partition. We extend in various directions the outcomes found in the literature by including the consideration of larger datasets and the treatment of edge effects and of negative spatial correlation. The outcomes obtained provide operational suggestions on how to choose between alternative forecasting methods in empirical circumstances. |
| Keywords: | Spatial correlation, Aggregation, Forecast efficiency, Space–time models, Edge effects, Negative spatial correlation. |
| JEL: | C15 C21 C43 C53 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpde:0720&r=ure |
| By: | Ron A. Boschma (Utrecht University, Department of Economic Geography, Utrecht, Netherlands); Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, German Institute of Economic Research, Berlin, and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the regional distribution and the effect of people in creative occupations based on data for more than 450 regions in eight European countries. The geographic distribution of the creative class is highly uneven. The creative class is not attracted to highly urbanized regions per se, but rather a climate of tolerance and openness seem to be rather important factors. We find that the creative class has a positive and significant effect on employment growth and new business formation at the regional level. Human capital as measured by creative occupation outperforms indicators that are based on formal education. |
| Keywords: | Creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, regional development |
| JEL: | O31 O18 R12 |
| Date: | 2007–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-066&r=ure |
| By: | Tom Broekel (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group); Thomas Brenner (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group) |
| Abstract: | The regional or national innovation performance has been repeatedly measured in the literature; but it has so far not been discussed what this means, especially in relation to a region. What is the contribution of a region to innovation output? The usual approaches implicitly assume that higher innovation outputs per inhabitant, employee, or R+D employee can be assigned to a region. We argue that more insights are gained if we distinguish between various mechanisms that influence the innovation activities in a region. Different analyses need to be conducted, using different variables and including different local factors. Furthermore, we see no justification for using a linear dependence of innovation activity on the number of inhabitants or employees as a benchmark for performance. We use a method that takes into account these arguments and apply it to the Electrics + Electronics industry in Germany. |
| Keywords: | Regional innovation performance, regional innovativeness, non-parametric performance analysis, measurement of regional innovativeness |
| JEL: | R11 R15 O31 |
| Date: | 2007–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-065&r=ure |
| By: | Amelie Constant; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | The paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. A two-dimensional concept of the ethnosizer classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. The ethnosizer largely depends on pre-migration characteristics. Empirical evidence studying economic behavior like work participation, earnings and housing decisions demonstrates the significant relevance of ethnic identity for economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, ethnic identity, acculturation, migrant assimilation, migrant integration, work, cultural economics |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp721&r=ure |