Housing Economics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Why a Historical Approach?

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 1-23

3. A Tale of Three Victorian Cities: Exploring Local Case Studies

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 25-50

4. Key Concepts from the Literature

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 51-82

5. Geology and Cities

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 83-109

6. Wars, Epidemics and Early Housing Policy: The Long-Run Effects of Temporary Disturbances

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 111-135

7. Speculation, Sub-division, Banking Fraud and Enlightened Self-interest: The Making of the Contemporary Glasgow Housing System

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 137-163

8. Building Our Way Out of Trouble

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 165-189

9. Residential Density Revisited: Sorting and Household Mobility

   • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

   Pages 191-216

10. Path Dependence, the Spatial Distribution of Immigrant Communities and the Demand for Housing

    • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

    Pages 217-242

11. Affordability and the Rise and Fall of Home Ownership

    • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

    Pages 243-274

12. On the Persistence of Poverty and Segregation

    • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

    Pages 275-295

13. Final Reflections

    • Geoffrey Meen, Kenneth Gibb, Chris Leishman, Christian Nygaard

    Pages 297-302

14. Back Matter

    Pages 303-313

    PDF

The world has still to emerge fully from the housing-triggered Global Financial Crisis, but housing crises are not new. The history of housing shows long-run social progress, littered with major disasters; nevertheless the progress is often forgotten, whilst the difficulties hit the headlines. Housing Economics provides a long-term economic perspective on macro and urban housing issues, from the Victorian era onwards. A historical perspective sheds light on modern problems and the constraints on what can be achieved; it concentrates on the key policy issues of housing supply, affordability, tenure, the distribution of migrant communities, mortgage markets and household mobility. Local case studies are interwoven with city-wide aggregate analysis. Three sets of issues are addressed: the underlying reasons for the initial establishment of residential neighbourhoods, the processes that generate growth, decline and patterns of integration/segregation, and the impact of historical development on current problems and the implications for policy.

• Housing economics
• Housing policy
• Urban economics
• Economic history
• Path dependence
• Global financial crisis
• Affordability
• House prices
• Social housing

“This scholarly and informative study presents a long-term economic perspective on a range of housing and urban policy issues. … the ways in which the authors have set their thought-provoking research into a wider housing policy context make this a valuable study both for academics and policy-makers.” (Robert Smith, International Journal of Housing Policy, Vol. 17 (2), March, 2017)

• Department of Economics, School of, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

  Geoffrey Meen

• University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences, Glasgow, United Kingdom

  Kenneth Gibb

• School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

  Chris Leishman

• Department of Economics, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

  Christian A. Nygaard

Geoffrey Meen is Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Reading, UK, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, Australia.Kenneth Gibb is Professor in Housing Economics and Director of Policy Scotland at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Chris Leishman is Professor of Housing Economics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.

Christian Nygaard is Associate Professor in Social Economics at the University of Reading, UK.

Policies and ethics