Promoting the supply of low income rental housing

Abstract

There is disturbing evidence of a contraction in the stock of low income private rental housing. In this paper we offer evidence indicating that federal government tax preferences, economies of scope and higher operating costs are part of the explanation for this contraction. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Rental Investors’ Survey is used to gauge whether low income housing tax credits and tax‐free capital gains thresholds can be used to promote the supply of low income rental housing.     

Explaining new firm creation in Europe from a spatial and time perspective: A multilevel analysis based upon data of individuals,regions and countries

This paper seeks to better understand the significance of spatial context conditions and personal attributes for early‐stage entrepreneurship. We combine individual with regional and national level data using multilevel analysis to test our hypotheses. We differentiate between two phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between general and ambitious entrepreneurship. First, we show that both the national and the regional context significantly impact individual entrepreneurial activities. Second, individual level characteristics exert the greatest overall influence, but the direction of this influence is not stable. Third, the impact of the three levels varies across the different phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between different types of start‐ups. Fourth, we demonstrate that cross‐level interactions between individual characteristics and spatial context factors are important in explaining entrepreneurial activities.     

Subtenures and Housing Outcomes for Low Income Renters in New York City

New York has devised a variety of policy approaches to improve the housing status of low‐income households, including public housing, publicly subsidized private housing, rent vouchers, welfare shelter allowances, rent regulation, and tax incentives to landlords. Little systematic attention has been paid to how these various subtenures compare when judged by the housing outcomes they produce for low‐income households in the city. Using data from the 1996 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, this article compares New York City’s rental subtenures in terms of the following outcomes: housing quality, crowding, affordability, residential mobility/stability, and various indicators of neighborhood quality. Adjusting for differences in household and housing stock characteristics, we find that the tenant‐based Section 8 program seems to produce the best set of overall outcomes for low‐income renters in the city.     

Use of information and communication technologies by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in building construction

Scholars usually agree that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) active in construction are not very innovative when compared with large‐size construction enterprises. This is particularly evident in the case of adoption and diffusion of innovation associated with information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although ICTs are powerful instruments for the rapid and broader diffusion of technical knowledge, few SMEs are fully able to exploit their benefits. There is little evidence of how SMEs perceive ICTs and of the extent to which these technologies are actually used in the construction industry. There is a relationship between organizational size and the use of ICTs within the SMEs in the building construction sector in Turkey. A set of ICT variables comprising the perception, investment, usage and the software preferences of SMEs were analysed by making use of the data collected in a survey of a randomly selected sample of 227 building construction firms in Turkey. In contrast to the common approaches that consider SMEs as part of a homogeneous set of firms with similar characteristics, this study seeks the differences in ICT‐related attitudes between SMEs of different sizes. Rather than using arbitrarily pre‐defined intervals to classify firms by size, cluster analysis was used in this study. Although what emerges as a whole is the common under‐utilization of ICTs by SMEs in building construction, ‘organizational size’ appears to explain some of the ICT‐related attitude differences within these SMEs. Policy makers can consider using the findings of this study as inputs in their activities, as these findings represent a generic overview of the diffusion of new technologies and can assist in identifying future research directions.     

Does entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process matter in social enterprises? Evidence from a developing African country

Social enterprises in developing countries act as development agents and are a constituent of the rising ‘social and solidarity’ economy whose established vision is to create social value and generate positive social outcomes. Traditional monitoring limit project managers’ capabilities to probe a project's ‘known – unknown’ impacts. Given that traditional monitoring arrangements persist to be challenging in resolving the high project failure rate in Africa, entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process enables project success. Corporate entrepreneurship literature has provided a strong theoretical basis for incorporating entrepreneurial actions, orientations, and decisions into ‘traditional’ project management process. This paper draws primary data from six selected social enterprises in Uganda to examine what constitute entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process. The findings support the need for (a) creating room for errors, (b) self-managed teams, and (c) soft skills maximisation amongst entrepreneurial project managers. Implications for strengthening social entrepreneurship ecosystems in developing economies to accelerate and scale-up social ventures to deliver social and economic value is discussed.     

Economic growth through entrepreneurship: Determinants of self-employed income across regional economies

Knowledge of the determinants of self-employment income is critical to entrepreneurial development strategies if the development goal is to increase incomes not just employment. Using American Community Survey data, unconditional quantile regression is used to investigate differences in the relationship between entrepreneurial income and an array of individual, industry, and regional characteristics across the self-employment income distribution. Personal attributes, such as education, race, age, and gender, both explain differences in self-employment income and vary in importance across the income distribution. Regional agglomerative effects are significantly positive and stronger at the upper end of the self-employed income distribution.     

Agglomeration, (un)‐related variety and new firm survival in China: Do local subsidies matter?

We study empirically the effects of five different dimensions of agglomeration – specialization, diversity, related variety, unrelated variety, and city size – on the survival chances of new entrepreneurial firms in China. Consideration is further given to studying the mediating effects of local subsidies on new firm survival given different existing local industrial structures in those regions. In support of the ‘regional branching’ hypothesis, we find that increasing local related variety has a stronger positive effect on new firm survival than other types of agglomeration. We also find that receiving comparatively fewer subsidies motivates firms to seek out and benefit from local existing economies, which in turn, positively influence their chances of survival. By contrast, agglomerated firms that receive relatively more subsidies tend to be more likely to face financial distress leading to eventual market exit. The findings thus reveal that both the intensity and the location of state support matters in terms of optimizing positive agglomeration effects on firms' post‐entry performance and survival.     

Health and safety management in developing countries: a study of construction SMEs in Ghana

The construction industry plays a significant role in the economy of developing countries. The sector is, however, also one of the most hazardous with frequent accidents and health‐related problems. The health and safety practices of construction small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana are examined with a view to improving the health and safety performance of the sector. A survey questionnaire was administered to owner/managers of SMEs, with a response rate of 32% of the sampling frame. Few of the SMEs adopted proactive health and safety practices. However, health and safety practices identified as being particularly associated with firm characteristics were: accident investigation procedures; accident reporting procedures; use of health and safety posters; documentation of method statements; and health and safety inductions. The diversity of health and safety practices associated with different size categories of SMEs and constraints to improving health and safety are highlighted. A positive change is needed in the attitudes of owner/managers which takes into account size‐related constraints in order to improve the health and safety performance of Ghanaian SMEs.     

A GEOGRAPHY‐SPECIFIC APPROACH TO ESTIMATING THE DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACT OF HIGHWAY TOLLS: AN APPLICATION TO THE PUGET SOUND REGION OF WASHINGTON STATE

ABSTRACT: This study contributes to the debate about tolls’ equity impacts by examining the potential economic costs of tolling for low‐income and non‐low‐income households. Using data from the Puget Sound metropolitan region in Washington State and geographic information systems methods to map driving routes from home to work, we examine car ownership and transportation patterns among low‐income and non‐low‐income households. We follow standard practice of estimating tolls’ potential impact only on households with workers who would drive on tolled and nontolled facilities. We then redo the analysis including broader groups of households. We find that the degree of regressivity is quite sensitive to the set of households included in the analysis. The results suggest that distributional analyses of tolls should estimate impacts on all households in the relevant region in addition to impacts on just users of roads that are currently tolled or likely to be tolled.     

The determinants of location choice: Single plants versus multi‐plants*

This paper adopts a count data model to explore the distinction between single plant and multi‐plant location choices. It is hypothesized that start‐up location decisions would be determined by supply variables (land, labour and capital costs, workforce and technological characteristics); demand variables (market size and market accessibility) and agglomeration economies. We use plant data and focus on location choices within Portuguese municipalities. Our research shows that new multi‐plants are particularly sensitive to urbanization economies, land costs and the size of the local market, while new single plants are more responsive to labour costs, both localization and urbanization economies and accessibility to main markets.     

The changing nature of financing low‐income urban housing development in Kenya

The poor state of housing in the cities of developing countries has been the subject of numerous studies. Only a few published articles on the topic, however, emphasise the complexity and interrelatedness of the key components of housing such as land, finance, building materials, and construction technologies. This article examines one of these components, namely finance, and assesses its importance to the development of appropriate low‐income housing in Kenya's second city, Mombasa. Kenya's urban housing policy emphasises home ownership rather than rentals. For the low‐income groups, the twin package of site and service and settlement upgrading has been the main programme of action. One of the most recent projects of this nature, the Second Urban Project (SUP) is evaluated here in so far as the nature of its financing has had important repercussions on the low‐income urban housing sub‐sector in Mombasa. It is the contention of this paper that the introduction into Mombasa's low‐income settlements of the conventional or formal systems of financing residential development has resulted in socio‐economic turbulence of gigantic proportions. It has led to clandestine plot sales, absentee landlordism, escalating rents, and the ‘invasion’ of low‐income settlements by higher income groups. Prior to the implementation of this World Bank funded project, the financing of low‐income housing had been primarily done on an informal basis under a traditional method known as the ‘tenancy‐at‐will’ system which encouraged progressive housing development, and discouraged absentee landlordism. This article concludes that it is not cost‐effective to rapidly replace non‐conventional methods. It would be more appropriate to integrate the two in a pragmatic way by adopting more novel ways of financing low‐income residential development in a way that would minimise the current rampant failures of these projects in meeting their stated objectives.     

Beggar thy neighbour,beggar thy neighbourhood

Neighbourhood effects and the economies of housing consumption are, independently, thoroughly researched topics in the urban economics literature. Little has been said, however, about the effects of housing consumption restrictions on the dispersal of neighbourhood effects to different economic groups. At a time of rising public concern about economic inequality, properly understanding the link between housing market restrictions and neighbourhood effects across the income spectrum is of increasing importance. This paper proposes a model to better assess how labour productivity as influenced by neighbourhood effects changes with restrictions in housing consumption. The results of the model show that except in the case where no labour complementarity exists between the high and low‐skilled population segments, housing restrictions excluding the poor from the better‐off neighbourhoods will lead to welfare losses for both populations.     

Promoting the supply of low income rental housing

There is disturbing evidence of a contraction in the stock of low income private rental housing. In this paper we offer evidence indicating that federal government tax preferences, economies of scope and higher operating costs are part of the explanation for this contraction. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Rental Investors' Survey is used to gauge whether low income housing tax credits and tax-free capital gains thresholds can be used to promote the supply of low income rental housing.     

BEYOND ETHNIC ENCLAVES? EXPLORING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LATINO‐OWNED EMPLOYER FIRMS IN TWO U.S. IMMIGRATION GATEWAYS

The Latino population in the United States has increased dramatically during the past several decades. However, Latino‐owned businesses have been understudied. Even less is known about these firms’ spatial distribution. Built on an interdisciplinary literature on industrial locations and ethnic economies, this study examines how the development of ethnic minority–owned businesses is contingent on the local neighborhood as both a work site and habitat. Using a confidential national survey of ethnic minority–owned businesses in the United States, this study compares the spatial distribution of Latino‐owned employer firms in the Miami and Atlanta metropolitan areas. Consistent with previous research, results from this study strongly reinforce the importance of a connection between ethnic population concentration and emergence of ethnic businesses. A concentration of local businesses and co‐locating with other businesses, regardless of ethnicity, are very important as well. Such agglomeration effects seem particularly important for new immigration destinations like Atlanta where a favorable entrepreneurial environment is still being developed for ethnic minority businesses. However, the positive effects from co‐locating with local businesses are not linear. A threshold effect and small count preferences are detected in the two study areas.     

Individual Development Accounts: Participants' Characteristics and Success

Abstract: Asset‐building strategies have been touted as a new approach to helping low‐income families achieve economic independence. By providing incentives to save and invest in an asset—such as a home, a business, or additional education—Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) hope to help lower‐income families advance economically. Using the data collected on 21 IDA programs in North Carolina, this article addresses the characteristics of the persons served by these programs as well as the factors related to participant success and failure. The results indicate that IDA participants are different in many respects from the general population of low‐income persons. They are more likely to be single African‐American mothers with relatively high levels of education and full‐time employment. Effective case management and economic literacy training contributed to program success, whereas job loss and financial emergencies contributed to the dropout rate. The implications of these findings for expanding IDAs to a wider population are considered.     

Who speaks for the poor?

There is in Australia a chronic shortage of decent housing affordable to the income poor. This shortage is exacerbated by increasingly vociferous opposition from groups of residents to proposals for low‐income housing development. The move towards a more inclusionary form of planning in the 1990s, based on an expansion of public participation strategies, often leaves planners torn between satisfying the demands of the vociferous few and a professional desire for ‘balanced’ development which considers a broader, if nebulous, ‘public good’. In urban consolidation debates, far more is heard from articulate middle class NIMBYs who fear that provision of ‘affordable’ housing will allow people of different (i.e. inferior) backgrounds to move into their areas, than from the lower‐income groups who want to realize their assets through subdivision of their property or who simply want the opportunity to afford somewhere to live. However inclusionary the planning process seeks to be, the articulate classes will become more actively and vociferously involved than others in attempting to shape discussion and outcomes. Is anyone able to speak for the poor or ensure their voices are heard?     

THE GEOGRAPHY OF INSECURITY: SPATIAL CHANGE AND THE FLEXIBILIZATION OF LABOR IN METRO MANILA

ABSTRACT: There has been considerable attention in the urban studies literature to the implications of spatial change associated with globalization for the urban poor in advanced economies, but much less so in developing countries despite the fact that this is where most urbanization is occurring. This article attempts to address this issue in the context of Metro Manila, a globalizing city of 10.7 million that sits in a larger mega‐urban region of some 17 million. It does so through an analysis of data collected through two methods: a sample survey of six low‐income settlements in the Metro Manila region that collected information about housing conditions, income, and employment of household members, commuting, and household heads' opinions regarding spatial change; and in‐depth interviews with a subset of respondents that were intended to generate narratives and stories that would elucidate the experience of households with spatial change. The study identifies three main issues confronting the surveyed households: the social impacts of the flexibilization of labor in the Metro Manila region, gender and age differences in access to employment, and the prevalence of extremely long commutes on the urban fringe. The article concludes that the issues faced by Metro Manila households are in many ways quite distinct from those in cities in advanced economies. It further argues that these differences have important implications both for urban policy and practice in addressing equity issues, and for theories of globalization and issues of spatial change and social equity in cities.     

Identifying network density and scale economies for Japanese water supply organizations

Within this analysis we determine the optimal size (that is, with the minimum average cost) of a water supply enterprise and reconsider the matter of scale economies, using sample data from Japanese water supply organizations. After surveying evidence from previous studies of scale economies in the water supply industry, we estimate cost functions with three different cost models: the log-linear, translog and translog with a hedonic function. We obtain the result that economies of network density do exist, but that there are slight diseconomies of scale at the sample mean point. The optimal size of a water supply organization would be one supplying a population of approximately 766,000 people. Received: 10 March 2000 / Accepted: 8 January 2001     

LOW‐INCOME HOMEOWNERSHIP: DOES IT NECESSARILY MEAN SACRIFICING NEIGHBORHOOD QUALITY TO BUY A HOME?

ABSTRACT: Questions have been raised about the wisdom of low‐income homeownership policies for many reasons. One potential reason to be skeptical: low‐income homebuyers perhaps may be constrained to purchase homes in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This is a potential problem because home purchases in such neighborhoods: (1) may limit appreciation; (2) may reduce quality of life for adults; and (3) may militate against reputed advantages of homeownership for children. Our study examines the neighborhood conditions of a group of 126 low‐income homebuyers who purchased their first home with assistance from the Home Ownership Program (HOP) operated by the Denver Housing Authority. Our approach is distinguished by its use of a comprehensive set of objective and subjective indicators measuring the neighborhood quality of pre‐move and post‐move neighborhoods. Do low‐income homebuyers sacrifice neighborhood quality to buy their homes? Our results suggest that the answer to this question is more complex than it might at first appear. On the one hand, HOP homebuyers purchased in a wide variety of city and suburban neighborhoods. Nonetheless, a variety of neighborhood quality indicators suggest that these neighborhoods, on average, were indeed inferior to those of Denver homeowners overall and to those in the same ethnic group. However, our analyses also revealed that their post‐move neighborhoods were superior to the ones they lived in prior to homeownership. Moreover, very few HOP destination neighborhoods evinced severe physical, environmental, infrastructural, or socioeconomic problems, as measured by a wide variety of objective indicators or by the homebuyers' own perceptions. Indeed, only 10% of HOP homebuyers perceived that their new neighborhoods were worse than their prior ones, and only 8% held pessimistic expectations about their new neighborhoods' quality of life. Finally, we found that Black homebuyers fared less well than their Latino counterparts, on average, in both objective and subjective measures.     

Estimating elasticities of demand and willingness to pay for clean drinking water: empirical evidence from a household level survey in northern Pakistan

This study estimates income and price elasticities of demand for improved drinking water quality in Peshawar, Pakistan. The estimates indicate that improved water can be described as a necessity but normal and an ordinary and price elastic service. Confidence intervals show however that the classification as a necessity is statistically significant. Income elasticities of willingness to pay for drinking water are estimated. The study finds that income and willingness to pay vary directly and significantly. The elasticity estimates, in general, are greater than zero, but less than unity. The study concludes that improvements in drinking water are more beneficial to low‐income groups than for high‐income groups.