Policy Coordination in an Oligopolistic Housing Market

This paper analyzes the consequences of the interaction between two different levels of government (regulators) in the development of housing policy when their decisions determine the level of competition in the housing market. The analysis discusses the implications derived from a lack of coordination between a local regulator who controls the supply of land for housing development and a central regulator who decides on housing subsidies. The results suggest that lack of coordination has significant effects on prices and supply of houses, housing developers’ profits, and buyers’ surplus.

Ad valorem housing subsidies may reduce house building

In this paper it is shown that an ad valorem housing subsidy set by a central regulator (or a raise in the ad valorem housing subsidy rate) may reduce the number of houses built in the market and increase the price paid by the buyers of houses. The analysis considers a situation where there is imperfect competition in the housing market and a local regulator that decides on density, or on the number of sites for housing development, and that cares about a combination of the profits of housing developers and the surplus of buyers of houses.

Social Housing under Oligopoly

In this paper it is shown that the setting up of a social housing system may decrease the total number of houses built in the market, induce a price of non-social houses greater than the price of houses without that system and increase the profits of housing developers even in situations where they have to sell social houses at a price below production cost. The analysis considers a situation with imperfect competition in the housing market and with a social housing system where housing developers must provide some social houses when they obtain a permit to build non-social houses.

Population age structure and private consumption in Spain

In this paper we study the effect of population age distribution upon private consumption expenditure in Spain from 1964 to 1997 using aggregate data. We obtain four main results. First, changes in the population pyramid have substantial effects upon the behaviour of private consumption. Second, the pattern of the coefficients of the demographic variables is not consistent with the simplest version of the life cycle hypothesis. Third, we estimate the impact of the demographic transition upon consumption and find positive values associated with episodes in which the shares of groups of individuals with expenditure levels higher (lower) than the mean increased (decreased). Fourth, the results are robust to alternative specifications for the population age distribution.

Experiences of Public-Private Collaboration for Stimulating

For over a decade now, work has been ongoing on the professional organization and management of town centre retail spaces in Spain under what is known as the Open Shopping Centre model. Introducing this model has involved a process of public-private collaboration in several different phases, conditioned to a large extent by the specific context of each initiative. With a view to furthering the process of benchmarking developed out of the experiences of recent years, we shall use case analysis to explain trends in initiatives for retail regeneration and stimulation undertaken in the Basque Country (an autonomous community in the north of Spain) since 2000. We analyze the factors that have prompted these initiatives, assessing and comparing the landmarks and conditions that have marked, or are determining, progress in the dynamic of collaboration between municipal authorities and retailers for a competitive improvement both in the retail sector and in the environment in which it operates: the city. Finally we list witch are these key factors.

The Private Provision of International Impure Public Goods: the Case of Climate Policy

33 p.

Estudio y soluciones a la problemática de contaminación acústica en el entorno del aeropuerto de Loiu

[ES]El rápido aumento de las nuevas tecnologías, así como el aumento del uso tanto del transporte público como del privado ha conllevado un aumento en los niveles de ruido. Además, la proximidad de las industrias a las ciudades y los trabajos diarios a pie de calle no han mejorado esta situación, sino que la ha empeorado. Debido a este aumento de la intensidad sonora, las enfermedades que derivan de ello han aumentado. Por ello, las soluciones para disminuir los niveles de ruido que llegan a la población se han ido desarrollando cada vez más. En el caso de las viviendas cercanas a los aeropuertos, la solución adoptada comúnmente es la insonorización acústica del edificio por su relativa sencillez. En este trabajo, se estudia un caso concreto de un edificio residencial cercano al aeropuerto de Loiu, Bilbao y se resuelve la opción más sencilla posible de aislamiento acústico para la vivienda.

Analysis of the housing market in the autonomous community of the Basque country: the adjustment after the burst of the housing bubble

In this project study the characteristic and dynamics of the residential housing market in the Basque country. When strong expansion and colapsing emerged in 2007,studied the differents adjustment.

Energy retrofits in social housing. Analysis of its thermal behaviour.

468 p.