Housing and Economics

Despite the fact that there are still eleven million American families living in substandard and overcrowded housing, no single book in the plethora of recent “urban crisis” entries has presented penetrating analyses of the economics of low-income housing policy and its component programs. Housing and Economics brings together in a single comprehensive volume a number of scholarly articles focused on the applied economic and financial problems of rebuilding America's housing stock. In relating the financial to the economic dimensions of low-income housing solutions, this compilation bridges the gap between the theoretical and applied approaches to the economic implications of such solutions and programs. Thus the volume both complements existing housing analyses concerned with the general operations of the housing market and detailed studies of particular programs and presents a coherent statement on the applied economic analysis of one aspect of national housing policy.

The book has been organized into four main sections embracing macro- and micro-economic contexts, components of housing costs, programmatic evaluation, and analysis of emerging housing proposals. Each of the major sections is introduced by an essay which offers both an overview and on original analysis of the papers that follow. The readings range from the Douglas Commission's summary of housing needs to staples such as “filtering,” taxes, and finance – from industrial efficiency to the effects of guaranteed annual income. Many of the articles are widely regarded as, or destined to become, “modern” classics. Together, they are directed to a wide audience of educators, students, and practitioners in city planning, housing, social welfare, and economics.

Among the major contributors are Sherman Maisel, Wallace Smith, Jerome Rothenberg, Leland Burns, Eugene Smolensky, Louis Winnick, William Grigsby, Anthony Downs, George Sternlieb, and the editor, Michael Stegman.