Housing Economics: A Historical Approach

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.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Why a Historical Approach?
Chapter 2: A Tale of Three Victorian Cities: Exploring Local Case Studies
Chapter 3: Key Concepts from the Literature
Chapter 4: Geology and Cities
Chapter 5: Wars, Epidemics and Early Housing Policy: The Long-Run Effects of Temporary Disturbances
Chapter 6: Speculation, Sub-division, Banking Fraud and Enlightened Self-interest: The Making of the Contemporary Glasgow Housing System
Chapter 7: Building Our Way Out of Trouble
Chapter 8: Residential Density Revisited: Sorting and Household Mobility
Chapter 9: Path Dependence, the Spatial Distribution of Immigrant Communities and the Demand for Housing
Chapter 10: Affordability and the Rise and Fall of Home Ownership
Chapter 11: On the Persistence of Poverty and Segregation
Chapter 12: Final Reflections