Housing and capital in the 21st Century

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century has attracted public, policy and academic attention. Although there is a growing research literature on the formation, distribution, utilization and wider implications of housing wealth there has been little discussion of Piketty’s work in housing studies. This paper outlines and assesses the major contributions of Piketty, including re-emphasizing distribution and political economy perspectives within economics, modelling growth and distribution, establishing detailed long run patterns of wealth change and policy implications. The paper highlights the significance of shifting housing wealth in increasing inequalities in some countries: housing matters in macro-shifts. We also draw out the implications of house price and wealth growth for the balance of rentier vs. entrepreneurial forms of capitalism. If Piketty’s work is important for housing research, we also argue the converse, that housing research findings can strengthen his analysis. The stylized facts of advanced economy metropolitan growth suggest that housing market processes and wealth outcomes will drive higher inequality and lower productivity into the future unless housing and related policies change markedly. Piketty, strong on evidence and conceptualization is weak on policy development and housing studies can drive more effective assessments of change possibilities

Housing assets and small business investment : exploring links for theory and policy

Housing market activity and firm formation are both positively correlated with the business cycle, and the levels of mortgage lending to business owners and funding of small firms have fallen in the UK since 2008. This paper explores a neglected, causal linkage between housing assets and small business investment and the economy and, in particular, draws attention to the recent reduction in small business investment consequent to a reduced capacity of entrepreneurs to withdraw or leverage housing equity. It draws on secondary data for the UK and interviews with key policy and practice stakeholders for both housing and enterprise.Peer reviewe

Preparation of an employee handbook

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

Effectiveness of de-implementation strategies for low-value prescribing in secondary care : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Specifying behavioural and strategy components of de-implementation efforts targeting low-value prescribing practices in secondary health care

Peer reviewe

Exploring the ‘middle ground’ between state and market: the example of China

Studies of housing systems lying in the ‘middle ground’ between state and market are subject to three important shortcomings. First, the widely used Esping-Andersen (EA) approach assesses only a subset of the key housing outcomes and may be less helpful for describing changes in housing policy regimes. Second, there is too much emphasis on tenure transitions, and an assumed close correspondence between tenure labels and effective system functioning may not be valid. Third, due attention has not been given to the spatial dimensions in which housing systems operate, in particular when housing policies have a significant devolved or localised emphasis. Updating EA’s framework, we suggest a preliminary list of housing system indicators in order to capture the nature of the housing systems being developed and devolved. We verified the applicability of this indicator system with the case of China. This illustrates clearly the need for a more nuanced and systematic basis for categorising differences and changes in welfare and housing policies

Using shared goal setting to improve access and equity: a mixed methods study of the Good Goals intervention

Background: Access and equity in children’s therapy services may be improved by directing clinicians’ use of resources toward specific goals that are important to patients. A practice-change intervention (titled ‘Good Goals’) was designed to achieve this. This study investigated uptake, adoption, and possible effects of that intervention in children’s occupational therapy services. Methods: Mixed methods case studies (n = 3 services, including 46 therapists and 558 children) were conducted. The intervention was delivered over 25 weeks through face-to-face training, team workbooks, and ‘tools for change’. Data were collected before, during, and after the intervention on a range of factors using interviews, a focus group, case note analysis, routine data, document analysis, and researchers’ observations. Results: Factors related to uptake and adoptions were: mode of intervention delivery, competing demands on therapists’ time, and leadership by service manager. Service managers and therapists reported that the intervention: helped therapists establish a shared rationale for clinical decisions; increased clarity in service provision; and improved interactions with families and schools. During the study period, therapists’ behaviours changed: identifying goals, odds ratio 2.4 (95% CI 1.5 to 3.8); agreeing goals, 3.5 (2.4 to 5.1); evaluating progress, 2.0 (1.1 to 3.5). Children’s LoT decreased by two months [95% CI −8 to +4 months] across the services. Cost per therapist trained ranged from £1,003 to £1,277, depending upon service size and therapists’ salary bands. Conclusions: Good Goals is a promising quality improvement intervention that can be delivered and adopted in practice and may have benefits. Further research is required to evaluate its: (i) impact on patient outcomes, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and (ii) transferability to other clinical contexts

Housing and the Economy: Interrogating Australian Experts' Views

This report stems from an ongoing research program to investigate and expose the connectivity between housing system outcomes and economic performance. In gauging the views of leading Australian economists and residential property market experts it reveals a strong consensus that governments must pay greater attention to the way that over-expensive housing negatively impacts productivity. Similarly, the housing system is generally seen as exacerbating inequality and impairing financial stability. However, experts remain divided on the causes of growing housing unaffordability in Australia, especially in relation to the culpability of land use planning regulation

The emergence and evolution of City Deals in Scotland

There is a resurgent policy emphasis on the role of city-regions as drivers of economic growth. Officials and leaders in such metropolitan areas, however, are confronted with challenges relating to administrative fragmentation, achieving alignment with national policy objectives, and demonstrating the capabilities to plan, finance and deliver effective policy interventions and investments. As a response to these challenges, policymakers are fashioning new governance arrangements, attached to experimental policy mechanisms, to develop urban policy. Of note, City Deals have recently emerged in the UK, and this paper charts their evolution across the UK, with a focus on the devolved administrations in particular. The paper ends with some reflections and questions about their roll out in Scotland