Housing demand and intra‐urban mobility of finnish housing allowance recipients¹

Abstract

Loikkanen, Heikki: Housing demand and intra-urban mobility of Finnish housing allowance recipients. SHPR 5: 1988 In this paper we present results of housing demand and intra-urban mobility behaviour of new housing allowance recipients in Finland. The theoretical framework is a search model developed by the present author elsewhere. This model suggests that both the probability of searching and of accepting (randomly) received offers are increasing functions of the discrepancy between desired and current housing consumptions. In our empirical analysis we first estimate desired demand functions from our data with a special technique. Then, we use these functions to obtain predictions of desired demands with and without the allowance. These are compared to actual demands which, unlike the desired ones, are affected by prevailing rent regulation and related availability problems. Finally, we use measures of discrepancy between the desired demand with the allowance and the actual pre-allowance housing demand to explain mobility during the first three years of obtaining the allowance. The actual demand effects of the allowance seem to be small relative to their impact on desired demands, which also are rather small.

Local moving activity among norwegian households

“…A similar effect was found in a study of residential mobility and housing demand among receivers of housing allowances in Finland. Loikkanen (1988) found that over-consumption triggered residential moves to a far lower extent than under-consumption did. Loikkanen hypothesized that the asymmetric response to mismatch could be caused by the concavity of the utility function.…”

“…Housing demand and mobility among 'Receivers of housing allowances' in Finland was studied by Loikkanen (1988). Loikkanen uses a search model, and develops an empirical measure of disequilibrium (or mismatch) in the housing demand.…”

Evaluating housing policies from an income‐distribution perspective—The case of Sweden

“…Some evaluations of housing allowances focus solely on the impact on the recipients' choice of housing consumption (de Borger, 1986;Loikkanen, 1988;Westerlund, 1988). But in some evaluations the distribution of the allowances between different income groups has also been examined (Ahren, 1987).…”

Moving Costs and the Dynamics of Housing Demand

“…The other tradition in economic studies of mobility to which my work is related is the 'disequilibrium' approach. In order to illustrate the connections between my work and this approach, I will brie y discuss the articles of Venti and Wise (1984) and Loikkanen (1988).…”

“…This is supported by the empirical results of Edin and Englund (1991). Loikkanen (1988) gives a search theoretic analysis of housing demand in which the decision to move can be split up in two steps. First, large discrepancies between actual and desired housing consumption lead a household to start searching for a new dwelling.…”