Homeownership and subjective well-being

Favouring homeownership is an important part of housing policies in many countries. Although this may be explained by the preferences of the majority of voters, it may also be because homeownership is believed to have positive effects on individuals’ behaviour and welfare. Previous research seems to indicate that homeownership increases individual welfare, but it is difficult to control for all other factors that may influence and bias the results. Based on panel data from Danish surveys on living conditions from the years 1976, 1986 and 2000, the paper presents an analysis of homeownership and subjective well-being.Homeownership; Subjective well-being; Panel data

Homeownership and ill-being

Social policy aims to relieve the ill-being of low income groups, and housing policies in many European countries promote homeownership for low-income households. Previous economic research on subjective well-being seems to indicate that homeownership increases subjective well-being, but little research is done on the relations between homeownership and ill-being. The present study tries to fill some of this gap by use of panel data from three Danish surveys on living conditions in the years 1976, 1986 and 2000.Ill-being; subjective well-being; homeownership

Rent control and misallocation

The paper considers welfare effects of rent control when it is applied only in a sector of a rental housing market. In rent controlled sectors of the Danish rental housing market, we find welfare reducing overallocation of square meters between 9 and 17 per cent of actual allocations. Looking at the 20 per cent most overallocated households, the overallocation of square meters is between 42 and 92 per cent, and the estimated corresponding welfare loss ranges from 1.5 to 5.3 per cent of the average annual rent in the sectors.Rent control; Housing; Regulation; Price ceiling; Rationing; Allocation

Interregional migration and housing structure in an East European transition country: A view of Lithuania 2001-2008

This paper explores the relationship between interregional mobility at the municipal level and the local housing structure in a country where the housing sector is characterised by a relatively high private ownership rate, a small private rental sector, and persistent undersupply of new residential housing. Panel data for Lithuania – an East European transition country – for the years 2001-2008 are used to analyse internal migration inflows and outflows. Besides the usual migration determinants such as unemployment and wage differences, housing sector characteristics are also included in the empirical analysis. The results show that internal migration flows are quite responsive to variations in housing market characteristics, especially to the supply of new dwellings, indicating that housing shortage is the key factor hampering interregional migration.Interregional migration, mobility, housing, Lithuania

Demografi og boligpriser i den københavnske metropol

Den demografiske udvikling i den københavnske metropol har ændret sig markant i de senere år. Det nye er, at Hovedstaden er blevet den befolkningsmæssige magnet med netto-tilflytning fra såvel forstæderne som resten af landet