Suchergebnisse

A wide range of aggregate data is used to examine the spatial variation in homeownership rates among a cross-section of 96 German planning regions. The analysis accounts for potential endogeneity of prices and affordability as well as for spatial dependence in homeownership levels. In addition to familiar demographic and socioeconomic variables, the regional price and affordability of owner-occupied housing, and the regional composition of the housing stock can be identified as important determinants of regional tenure choice patterns. At large, the above factors suffice to explain both the substantial disparities in homeownership rates between eastern and western Germany as well as between rural, urbanized and agglomerated locations. The results of this study offer some interesting implications for housing policy.

Abstract
Until the pandemic, the level of real investments made by municipalities was noticeably on the upswing. Three years after the outbreak of the pandemic and one year after the start of the Ukraine war, the question arises as to how municipal investment activity has developed in the wake of both crises. In nominal terms, investment expenditure continues to grow, but appearances are deceptive: in price-adjusted terms, noticeably less is being invested today than in 2020. At the same time, the structure of investment activity has changed.

Individual sales prices and local vacancy rates in the housing market pose a natural analogy to the wage curve, a popular concept in labor economics that describes how individual wages decrease with higher local unemployment. While housing search and matching models and housing externalities strongly suggest a stable inverse relationship, there is still a lack of convincing empirical research on the sensitivity of house sales to local vacancy variation. Based on more than 10,000 single-family home transactions from the German market, this paper confirms a robust house price-vacancy curve among individual home prices and adjacent residential vacancies. The economic size of the relationship is highly comparable across all four analyzed states: a doubling of the vacancy rate at the municipality level is associated with a 5-8% discount in quality-controlled selling prices. Despite negative price signals, local vacancy distributions tend to persist over long time horizons, leaving room for policy intervention.

Die Bundesregierung hat neue Instrumente der makroprudenziellen Regulierung für den deutschen Hypothekenmarkt geschaffen. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Notwendigkeit der Anwendung dieser Instrumente vor dem Hintergrund bestehender Finanzierungsgewohnheiten und Regulierungen. Angesichts der im internationalen Vergleich bereits als konservativ anzusehenden Ausgestaltung der Wohnimmobilienfinanzierung erscheint ein Einsatz makroprudenzieller Instrumente auf absehbare Zeit nicht erforderlich. Grundsätzlich sollten Entscheidungen hierüber regelgebunden auf Grundlage belastbarer Einzelkreditdaten erfolgen. Dafür bedarf es insgesamt eines besseren Monitorings des Immobilienfinanzierungsmarktes. ; Revised Version

Using data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census and historical war damages as a source of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. The result is independent of local market conditions, suggesting tax salience as key mechanism. We find positive spatial dependence in tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking.

Bericht im Rahmen des Projekts "Wie reagieren Sparer und Banken auf das Niedrigzinsumfeld?" im Auftrag der ING-DiBa AG.

This paper investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. "Homeowner communities" may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. Using granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census and historical war damages as a source of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience as the key mechanism behind this effect. We find positive spatial dependence in tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments.

A wide range of aggregate data is used to examine the spatial variation in homeownership rates among a cross-section of 96 German planning regions. The analysis accounts for potential endogeneity of prices and affordability as well as for spatial dependence in homeownership levels. In addition to familiar demographic and socioeconomic variables, the regional price and affordability of owner-occupied housing, and the regional composition of the housing stock can be identified as important determinants of regional tenure choice patterns. At large, the above factors suffice to explain both the substantial disparities in homeownership rates between eastern and western Germany as well as between rural, urbanized and agglomerated locations. The results of this study offer some interesting implications for housing policy.

Der anhaltende Klimawandel, die Folgen der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise und die aktuellen Bestrebungen in Deutschland, nach der Havarie des Atomkraftwerks Fukushima I eine zügige Wende hin zu einer nachhaltigen Energieversorgung zu vollziehen, haben die öffentliche Diskussion um Quellen, Verteilung und unerwünschte Nebeneffekte unseres Wohlstandes und die Tragfähigkeit der bisherigen Produktions-, Konsum- und Wachstumsmuster befeuert. Die Eignung klassischer wirtschaftspolitischer Erfolgsmaßstäbe - wie beispielsweise des Bruttoinlandsprodukts - als alleinige Leitgrößen zur Beurteilung der Wohlfahrt einer Volkswirtschaft wird zunehmend infrage gestellt. Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft suchen nach alternativen Wohlfahrtsmaßen, um ein vollständigeres Bild vom Zustand einer Gesellschaft zu erhalten. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist die Systematisierung, Einordnung und Bewertung verschiedener aktuell diskutierter Ansätze zur Wohlfahrtsmessung. Hierzu werden zunächst die unterschiedlichen Anwendungsgebiete für alternative Wohlfahrtsmaße skizziert und - aufbauend auf einer allgemeinverständlichen Darstellung der theoretischen Grundlagen der Wohlfahrtsmessung - Kriterien für die Konstruktion geeigneter Maße abgeleitet. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch die Eignung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts als Wohlfahrtsmaß hinterfragt und bewertet. Für den vom Auftraggeber der Studie, die KfW Bankengruppe, publizierten KfW-Nachhaltigkeitsindikator ergeben sich aus der Studie Hinweise für eine Weiterentwicklung des Indikators.