The Diversification Benefits of Free Trade in House Value

This paper finds that homeowners could substantially reduce house price risk if they would reinvest their housing wealth in a market portfolio of houses. Free trade in the value of the house among homeowners would allow them to do so. To quantify the diversification benefits of free trade in house value, we estimate simple CAPM and APT models based on a detailed panel dataset of house price changes in the Netherlands. We find that about 92 to 96 percent of house price risk is diversifiable. In most cases, these diversification benefits outweigh the hedging effectiveness of house price futures.house price risk, free trade, financial market, diversification, futures

Evaluation of the Implementation of the Meeting Centres Support Program in Italy, Poland, and the UK; Exploration of the Effects on People with Dementia

Objectives: MEETINGDEM investigated whether the Dutch Meeting Centres Support Programme (MCSP) could be implemented in Italy, Poland, and the UK with comparable benefits. This paper reports on the impact on people living with dementia attending pilot Meeting Centres in the 3 countries. Methods: Nine pilot Meeting Centres (MCs) participated (Italy—5, Poland—2, UK—2). Effec- tiveness of MCSP was compared with Usual Care (UC) on outcomes measuring behavioural and psychological symptoms (NPI), depression (CSDD), and quality of life (DQoL, QOL‐AD), analysed by ANCOVAs in a 6‐month pre‐test/post‐test controlled trial. Results: Pre/post data were collected for 85 people with dementia and 93 carers (MCSP) and 74 people with dementia /carer dyads' receiving UC. MCSP showed significant positive effects for DQoL [Self‐esteem (F = 4.8, P = 0.03); Positive Affect (F = 14.93, P < 0.00); Feelings of Belong- ing (F = 7.77, P = 0.01)] with medium and large effect sizes. Higher attendance levels correlated with greater neuropsychiatric symptom reduction (rho = 0.24, P = 0.03) and a greater increase in feelings of support (rho = 0.36, P = 0.001). Conclusions: MCSPs showed significant wellbeing and health benefits compared with UC, building on the evidence of effectiveness from the Netherlands. In addition to the previously reported successful implementation of MCSP in Italy, Poland, and the UK, these findings suggest that further international dissemination of MCSP is recommended