New Cityscape Examines the Unequal Growth in Housing

July 21, 2020  

New Cityscape Examines the Unequal Growth in Housing

The latest issue of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research features a two-essay examination of housing inequality. While one takes a historical perspective, the other offers a comparative approach, and both review policy solutions to housing inequality. The issue was guest edited by John Carruthers.

Edward Glaeser shows how a historic engine of American economic growth ­— the migration of people into productive cities — has been threatened over the course of the previous half century as those cities have become resistant to increasing the housing stock. While this has contributed to rising inequality and suppressed overall growth, Glaeser outlines two policy paths forward: the removal of local regulatory barriers, and a federal policy that targets relatively depressed areas.

Toshiaki Aizawa, Matthias Helble, and Kwan Ok Lee investigate and contrast the state of housing inadequacy in 10 developing Asian nations and in the United States. Using data from the American Housing Survey and the Demographic and Health Survey, the researchers found that larger urban areas with greater income inequality tended to have greater amounts of inadequate housing. The authors also examine possible policy solutions.

Departments

Articles in Cityscape's regularly appearing departments include:

• Data Shop: Parcel Tax in California: Findings from New Data Sources by Soomi Lee;
• Foreign Exchange: How Finland Ended Homelessness by Marybeth Shinn and Jill Khadduri;
• Graphic Detail: Early Interstate Policy and Its Effects on Central Cities by
  Jeffrey Brinkman and Jeffrey Lin; and The "Punitive Push" on Mobile Homes by
  Graham Pruss and Karen Cheng;
• Industrial Revolution: Upcycling Shipping Containers for Houses by Mike Blanford and Stephen Bender;
• Policy Briefs: Opportunity Zones: A Place-Based Incentive for Investment in Low-Income Communities by Daniel Marcin; and A Comprehensive Look at Housing Market Conditions Across America's Cities by Anita Yadavalli, Brenna Rivett, James Brooks, and Christiana K. McFarland;
• SpAM: Applying Spaghetti and Meatballs to Proximity Analysis by Alexander Din.

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