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Articles in
English "New Housing
Supply and the Dilution of Social Capital," Forthcoming in "Why Do
Households Without Children Support Local Public Schools? Linking House Price
Capitalization to School Spending," with Christopher Mayer, "Agglomeration
Economies and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence
from "Office Space
Supply Restrictions in "Explaining the Black-White Homeownership Gap: The Role of Own Wealth, Parental Externalities and Locational Preferences," with Yingchun Liu, Journal of Housing Economics, 2008, Vol. 17, No. 2, 152-174. "An Empirical
Test of the Theory of Sales: Do Household Storage Constraints Affect Consumer
and Store Behavior?," with David Bell, Quantitative
Marketing and Economics, 2006, Vol. 4, No. 2, 87-117. (lead article)
"Neighborhood
Externality Risk and the Homeownership Status of Properties,"
"School Funding Equalization and Residential Location for the Young and the Elderly," with Christopher J. Mayer, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2004, Issue 5, 107-148. (ISSN 1528-7084) (ISBN 0-8157-1278-2) Articles in
German
"Chancen und Probleme eines europaeischen Emissionszertifikatehandels im Flugverkehr," Jahrbuch
der Schweizerischen Verkehrswirtschaft, 1996, Vol. 95/96, 43-54.
(Opportunities and Problems of an Emission Trading System for Air Traffic in
Handbook Chapters (in German) "Preistheorie: Einfluss von Preisaenderungen auf
Angebot und Nachfrage von Immobilien," In Karl-Werner Schulte (Editor), Immobilienoekonomie
(4. Band: Volkswirtschaftliche Grundlagen), 2008.
Books (in German) "Standortattraktivitaet, Liegenschaftspreise und Mieten," WWZ Forschungsbericht 4/99, 1999. (Attractiveness of Locations, Property Values, and Rents. Research Report.
"Innovatives Management staatlicher
Umweltpolitik: New Public Environmental
Management," Book Reviews "Tullock,
Gordon (1994): The New Federalist," Kyklos,
Vol. 50, No. 3, 445-446, 1997. Reports for Official Government Reviews
"On the origins of land use regulations: Theory and evidence from US metro areas," with Frederic Robert-Nicoud, December, 2009, mimeo, London School of Economics and University of Geneva. (under review) We model residential land use constraints as the outcome of a political economy game between owners of developed and owners of undeveloped land. Land use constraints benefit the former group (via increasing property prices) but hurt the latter (via increasing development costs). More desirable locations are more developed and, as a consequence of political economy forces, more regulated. Using an IV approach that directly follows from our model we find strong and robust support for our predictions. The data provide weak or no support for alternative hypotheses whereby regulations reflect the wishes of the majority of households or efficiency motives. "Supply
constraints and house price dynamics: Panel data evidence from
We explore the
impact of regulatory and physical supply constraints on house price levels and
volatility in "How sensitive are homeownership decisions to tax subsidies? The role of housing supply conditions and lending standards," with Tracy M. Turner, November, 2009, mimeo, London School of Economics.
In this paper we examine the impact of the combined state and federal mortgage interest tax subsidies to homeownership on homeownership attainment, using panel data from 1984 to 2007 and exploiting the fact that the value of these subsidies may vary by income group across states and over time and depending on local housing market conditions and lending standards. We also exploit the fact that households move across states, which generates another source of variation in tax subsidies. We test our proposition that capitalization of tax subsidies into higher house prices offsets the positive effect of tax subsidies on homeownership attainment by exploiting data on regulatory restrictiveness in the late 1970s/early 1980s as a proxy for the inelasticity of local housing supply. Controlling for household, MSA, state and year fixed effects as well as time-varying household and location characteristics, we find that in more restrictive places tax subsidies have a negligible effect on homeownership attainment whereas in less regulated places tax subsidies have a meaningful positive impact for all income groups except the lowest quartile. We also explore whether mortgage lending conditions affect the link between subsidies and homeownership attainment but find no supporting evidence. Our findings cast serious doubt on mortgage interest deduction as a policy for boosting homeownership and improving social welfare.
New Housing Supply and the Dilution of Social
Capital," November, 2008, London School of Economics. (revised version
forthcoming in
This paper examines the role of local housing supply conditions for social capital investment. Using an instrumental variables approach and data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, it is documented that the positive link between homeownership and individual social capital investment is largely confined to more built-up neighborhoods (with more inelastic supply of new housing). The empirical findings provide support for the proposition that in these localities house price capitalization provides additional incentives for homeowners to invest in social capital. The findings are also largely consistent with the proposition that built-up neighborhoods provide protection from inflows of newcomers that could upset a mutually beneficial equilibrium involving reciprocal cooperation. However, the results do not appear to be driven by selection based on inherent differences in social aptitudes or by Tiebout sorting.
We explore the impact of local economic conditions on the type and size of newly constructed housing. A slightly modified standard open monocentric city model predicts that, as long as land use regulation is relatively lax, positive local income shocks cause construction of more multifamily housing and smaller units. Exploiting metro area-level American Housing Survey (AHS) data from 1984 to 2004, we confirm that (i) local economic shocks have the predicted effects, (ii) these effects are confined to metro areas with relatively lax land use regulation, and (iii) the adjustment process appears to be driven by migration (as is assumed in the open monocentric city model). Hence, severe land use controls may hamper metro area labor market adjustment not only through limits on the quantity of newly supplied units, but also by constraining their type to housing that is less suitable for migrants.
"The
Determinants of Homeownership across Europe: Panel Data Evidence",
December, 2007,
This paper exploits
the panel structure of the ECHP micro data and uses fixed
effects-specifications to identify the main determinants of equilibrium
housing tenure outcomes across
While residents
receive similar benefits from many local government programs, only about
one-third of all households have children in public schools. We argue
that capitalization of school spending into house prices can encourage even
childless residents to support spending on schools. We identify a proxy
for the extent of capitalization—the supply of land available for new
development—and show that towns in
"Agglomeration
Economies and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence
from
We exploit the
large inflow of FDI into
"Explaining the Black-White Homeownership Gap: The Role of Own Wealth, Parental Externalities and Locational Preferences," with Yingchun Liu, August 2007, London School of Economics, Research Papers in Environmental and Spatial Analysis, No. 124. (revised version published in Journal of Housing Economics)
"New Housing Supply and the Dilution of Social Capital," August, 2007, London School of Economics, Research Papers in Environmental and Spatial Analysis, No. 123 (revise and resubmit)
"Office Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," with Paul Cheshire, MPRA Paper No. 5435, April, 2007. (revised version published in Economic Journal)
"Why Do Households Without Children Support Local Public Schools?," with Christopher J. Mayer, September, 2004, NBER Working Paper w10804. (Revised: September 2006)
"Homeownership and Land Use Control: A Dynamic Model with Voting and Lobbying," with Frederic Robert-Nicoud, January 2007, Research Papers in Environmental and Spatial Analysis, No 119.
Homeowners have incentives to control and limit local land development and anecdotic evidence suggests that 'homevoters' indeed actively support restrictive measures. Yet, US metro area level homeownership rates are strongly negatively related to corresponding measures of the restrictiveness of land use regulation. To shed light on these seemingly contradictory stylized facts, we present a dynamic model with a planning board that maximizes a weighted social welfare function (SWF). The SWF can be interpreted as the reduced form of various political economy models of voting and lobbying. We consider three special cases: a median voter model, a probabilistic voting model, and an 'influence for sale' model. In all three cases conditions exist that predict outcomes which are consistent with the presented stylized facts. Generally, our model predicts that the homeownership rate has an ambiguous effect on the regulatory restrictiveness.
We model residential land use constraints as the outcome of a political economy game between owners of developed and owners of undeveloped land. Land use constraints are interpreted as shadow taxes that increase the land rent of already developed plots and reduce the amount of new housing developments. In general equilibrium, locations with nicer amenities are more developed and, as a consequence, more regulated. We test our model predictions by geographically matching amenity, land use, and historical Census data to metropolitan area level survey data on regulatory restrictiveness. Following the predictions of the model, we use amenities as instrumental variables and demonstrate that metropolitan areas with better amenities are more developed and more tightly regulated than other areas. Consistent with theory, metropolitan areas that are more regulated also grow more slowly.
"Office Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," with Paul Cheshire, November, 2006, London School of Economics, Research Papers in Environmental and Spatial Analysis, No 117. (Significantly revised version published in Economic Journal)
"Agglomeration
Economies and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment: Quasi-Experimental
Evidence from
"Der Einfluss von Preisaenderungen auf Angebot und Nachfrage von Immobilien: Theorie, empirische Evidenz und Implikationen," Working Paper, February 2006 . (The Impact of Price Changes on the Supply and Demand of Properties: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Implications.) (Revised version published in Zeitschrift fuer Immobilienoekonomie).
"Social Capital and Neighborhood Clubs: The Role of the Housing Market," November, 2005, Working Paper prepared for presentation at the 52nd Annual North American Meetings of the RSAI.
"Do Homeowners Always Invest More in Social Capital? The Role of House Price Capitalization," November, 2004, Working Paper prepared for presentation at the 51st Annual North American Meetings of the RSAI.
"Why Do Households Without Children Support Local Public Schools? Linking House Price Capitalization to School Spending," with Christopher J. Mayer, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Working Paper, No. 02-10, June, 2002.
Supply Constraints and House Price Dynamics, with Wouter Vermeulen. Homeownership, New Housing Supply
Capacity, and the Dilution of Social Capital Investment. Why Do Home-Ownership Rates Vary So
Strongly Within and Across Countries? Desirable Communities and the Evolution of
Land Use Regulations, with Frederic Robert-Nicoud. Estimating the Cost of Regulatory
Restrictions on the Price of Office Space, with Paul Cheshire. Agglomeration Economies and the Location
of Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence from Are Homeowners more Entrepreneurial?, with Olmo Silva. School Funding Equalization, School
Spending, and Tiebout Sorting, with Christopher Mayer. The Role of Relocation Costs for Social
and Economic Outcomes in House Price Capitalization as an Incentive
Mechanism for Public and Private Investment. Explaining the Racial Homeownership Gap,
with Yingchun Liu. Do Housing Constraints and Distance Affect
the Retail Shopping Behavior of Consumers?, with
David Bell. The Quality Dimension of Housing, with Jan
Rouwendal and Wouter Vermeulen. Do State Annexation Laws Affect the Size
and Composition of Local Jurisdictions?, with
Benjamin Dachis and Frederic Robert-Nicoud. Ethnic Uncertainty and the Homeownership
Status of Properties. Local Housing Markets in Boom and Bust:
How the Supply Side Affects Home Price Dynamics. Behavioral Economics and the See also my Personal Profile under LSE's 'Who is Who' |
