Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283421 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Policy Paper No. 203
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Housing prices are rising faster than incomes in many areas of the world, reducing wellbeing and engendering social discontent. Passivity by municipal and national governments is no longer an option. In this essay, I will describe the tradeoffs between different housing policy objectives of governments and the public. I suggest that policy goals should be made explicit, and their tradeoffs acknowledged. Due to the durable impact of real estate development, housing and land-use policies should seek broad inter-partisan consensus. To avoid pernicious general equilibrium effects and because of limited public resources, subsidies ought to be carefully targeted. I will describe the thirty major economic strategies underpinning housing policies worldwide and discuss their main advantages and caveats. Effective housing programs must skillfully deploy a combination of these basic economic strategies, as I will illustrate through several global case studies. Programs should be carefully designed to anticipate behavioral responses from individuals, firms, governments, and markets. Unideological and professional implementation is critical for their success.
Subjects: 
real earnings
housing and family income
social policy
JEL: 
H53
I38
R21
R31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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