[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/57923.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do homeowners benefit urban neighborhoods? evidence from housing prices

Author

Listed:
  • Kortelainen, Mika
  • Saarimaa, Tuukka
Abstract
Homeownership is heavily subsidized in many countries mainly through the tax code. The adverse effects of lenient tax treatment of owner-occupied housing on economic efficiency and growth are large and well documented in the economics literature. The main argument in favor of subsidizing owner-occupied housing is that it creates positive externalities that offset these adverse effects. This paper tests whether homeowners create positive externalities to their immediate neighbourhood that capitalize into housing prices in multi-storey buildings. Using semiparametric hedonic regressions with and without instrumental variables we find no evidence of positive externalities from neighbourhood homeownership rate. This result is robust to relaxing the identification assumptions of our instrument using a recently developed set identification method. Our results suggest that the adverse efficiency effects of lenient tax treatment of owner-occupied housing are not offset by positive externalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Kortelainen, Mika & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2012. "Do homeowners benefit urban neighborhoods? evidence from housing prices," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57923, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:57923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/57923/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ivar Ekeland & James J. Heckman & Lars Nesheim, 2004. "Identification and Estimation of Hedonic Models," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 60-109, February.
    2. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Pierre-Daniel Sarte & Raymond Owens, 2010. "Housing Externalities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(3), pages 485-535, June.
    3. Glaeser, Edward L. & Sacerdote, Bruce, 2000. "The Social Consequences of Housing," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1-2), pages 1-23, March.
    4. Patrick Bajari & Matthew E. Kahn, 2005. "Estimating Housing Demand With an Application to Explaining Racial Segregation in Cities," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 23, pages 20-33, January.
    5. Michael Amior & Jonathan Halket, 2014. "Do households use home‐ownership to insure themselves? Evidence across U.S. cities," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 5(3), pages 631-674, November.
    6. James M. Poterba & Todd M. Sinai, 2008. "Income Tax Provisions Affecting Owner-Occupied Housing: Revenue Costs and Incentive Effects," NBER Working Papers 14253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    8. Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Farooque, Omar, 2013. "Interjurisdictional housing prices and spatial amenities: Which measures of housing prices reflect local public goods?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 635-648.
    9. Hilber, Christian A.L., 2010. "New housing supply and the dilution of social capital," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 419-437, May.
    10. Brueckner, Jan K, 1997. "Consumption and Investment Motives and the Portfolio Choices of Homeowners," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 159-180, October.
    11. Oliver W. Lerbs & Christian A. Oberst, 2014. "Explaining the Spatial Variation in Homeownership Rates: Results for German Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 844-865, May.
    12. Li, Qi, 1996. "On the root-N-consistent semiparametric estimation of partially linear models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 277-285, June.
    13. DiPasquale, Denise & Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 354-384, March.
    14. Marjorie Flavin & Takashi Yamashita, 2002. "Owner-Occupied Housing and the Composition of the Household Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 345-362, March.
    15. Poterba, James M, 1992. "Taxation and Housing: Old Questions, New Answers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 237-242, May.
    16. Karla Hoff & Arijit Sen, 2005. "Homeownership, Community Interactions, and Segregation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1167-1189, September.
    17. Linneman, Peter, 1985. "An economic analysis of the homeownership decision," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 230-246, March.
    18. Hills, John, 1991. "Distributional effects of housing subsidies in the United Kingdom," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 321-352, April.
    19. Daniel P. McMillen & Christian L. Redfearn, 2010. "Estimation And Hypothesis Testing For Nonparametric Hedonic House Price Functions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 712-733, August.
    20. Robinson, Peter M, 1988. "Root- N-Consistent Semiparametric Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(4), pages 931-954, July.
    21. Li, Qi & Stengos, Thanasis, 1996. "Semiparametric estimation of partially linear panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1-2), pages 389-397.
    22. Allen Head & Huw Lloyd-Ellis, 2012. "Housing Liquidity, Mobility, and the Labour Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1559-1589.
    23. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Eriksen, Michael D. & Gale, William G. & Mills, Gregory B., 2010. "What are the social benefits of homeownership? Experimental evidence for low-income households," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 249-258, May.
    24. Edward L. Glaeser & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2003. "The Benefits of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, pages 37-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Tuukka Saarimaa, 2011. "Imputed Rental Income, Taxation and Income Distribution in Finland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(8), pages 1695-1714, June.
    26. repec:esx:essedp:718 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Berkovec, James & Fullerton, Don, 1992. "A General Equilibrium Model of Housing, Taxes, and Portfolio Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 390-429, April.
    28. Skinner, Jonathan, 1996. "The dynamic efficiency cost of not taxing housing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 397-417, March.
    29. Daniel P. McMillen, 2010. "Issues In Spatial Data Analysis," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 119-141, February.
    30. Aviv Nevo & Adam M. Rosen, 2012. "Identification With Imperfect Instruments," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(3), pages 659-671, August.
    31. Glaeser, Edward Ludwig, 2011. "Rethinking the Federal Bias Toward Homeownership," Scholarly Articles 8052149, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    32. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6486 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    34. Gervais, Martin, 2002. "Housing taxation and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 1461-1489, October.
    35. Redfearn, Christian L., 2009. "How informative are average effects? Hedonic regression and amenity capitalization in complex urban housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 297-306, May.
    36. Coulson, N. Edward & Fisher, Lynn M., 2009. "Housing tenure and labor market impacts: The search goes on," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 252-264, May.
    37. Donald R. Haurin & Toby L. Parcel & R. Jean Haurin, 2002. "Does Homeownership Affect Child Outcomes?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 635-666.
    38. Boehm, Thomas P. & Schlottmann, Alan M., 1999. "Does Home Ownership by Parents Have an Economic Impact on Their Children?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 217-232, September.
    39. Qi Li & Jeffrey Scott Racine, 2006. "Nonparametric Econometrics: Theory and Practice," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 8355.
    40. David Barker & Eric Miller, 2009. "Homeownership and Child Welfare," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 37(2), pages 279-303, June.
    41. Brasington, David M., 2002. "Edge versus center: finding common ground in the capitalization debate," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 524-541, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Averett, Susan L. & Smith, Julie K., 2014. "Financial hardship and obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 201-212.
    2. Susan Averett & Sabrina Terrizzi & Yang Wang, 2017. "The Effect of Sorority Membership on Eating Disorders, Body Weight, and Disordered‐Eating Behaviors," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 875-891, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tuukka Saarimaa & Mika Kortelainen, 2012. "Do Homeowners Benefit the Neighborhood? Evidence from Semiparametric Hedonic Regressions," ERSA conference papers ersa12p472, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Coulson, N. Edward & Li, Herman, 2013. "Measuring the external benefits of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 57-67.
    3. Schünemann, Johannes & Trimborn, Timo, 2023. "Boosting taxes for boasting about houses? Status concerns in the housing market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 120-143.
    4. Serena Fatica & Doris Prammer, 2018. "Housing and the Tax System: How Large Are the Distortions in the Euro Area?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(2), pages 299-342, June.
    5. Panos Tsakloglou & Francesco Figari & Alari Paulus & Holly Sutherland & Gerlinde Verbist & Francesca Zantomio, 2012. "Taxing home ownership: distributional effects of including net imputed rent in taxable income," EcoMod2012 4323, EcoMod.
    6. Tuukka Saarimaa, 2011. "Imputed Rental Income, Taxation and Income Distribution in Finland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(8), pages 1695-1714, June.
    7. Hans R. A. Koster & Jos Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2014. "Agglomeration Economies and Productivity: A Structural Estimation Approach Using Commercial Rents," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(321), pages 63-85, January.
    8. Christian A. L. Hilber & Tracy M. Turner, 2014. "The Mortgage Interest Deduction and its Impact on Homeownership Decisions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 618-637, October.
    9. Aarland, Kristin & Santiago, Anna Maria & Galster, George C. & Nordvik, Viggo, 2021. "Childhood Housing Tenure and Young Adult Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Sibling Comparisons in Norway," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. John Gibson & Bonggeun Kim, 2018. "Home Ownership and Political Participation: Longitudinal Evidence Suggests There is No Causal Relationship," Working Papers in Economics 18/02, University of Waikato.
    11. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.
    12. Hilber, Christian A.L., 2010. "New housing supply and the dilution of social capital," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 419-437, May.
    13. Marco Helbich & Wolfgang Brunauer & Eric Vaz & Peter Nijkamp, 2014. "Spatial Heterogeneity in Hedonic House Price Models: The Case of Austria," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(2), pages 390-411, February.
    14. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo.
    15. Theodore Panagiotidis & Panagiotis Printzis, 2016. "On the macroeconomic determinants of the housing market in Greece: a VECM approach," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 387-409, July.
    16. Matthew Chambers & Carlos Garriga & Don E. Schlagenhauf, 2009. "Accounting For Changes In The Homeownership Rate," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(3), pages 677-726, August.
    17. Grislain-Letrémy, Céline & Katossky, Arthur, 2014. "The impact of hazardous industrial facilities on housing prices: A comparison of parametric and semiparametric hedonic price models," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 93-107.
    18. Lagomarsino, Bruno Cardinale & Rossi, Martin A., 2024. "JUE insight: The unintended effect of Argentina's subsidized homeownership lottery program on intimate partner violence," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    19. Matthew Chambers & Carlos Garriga & Don E. Schlagenhauf, 2007. "Mortgage contracts and housing tenure decisions," Working Papers 2007-040, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    20. Hembre, Erik & Dantas, Raissa, 2022. "Tax incentives and housing decisions: Effects of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    homeownership; neighbourhood effects; partial linear model; set identification;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:57923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.