Policy Considerations on Housing, Wealth, and Inequality

Orsetta Causa
Nicolas Woloszko
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

This paper discusses policies on housing from wealth accumulation and wealth distribution perspectives, relying on new evidence and stylized facts from recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research (Causa, Woloszko, and Leite, 2019). A key policy issue is whether and how housing-related policies affect wealth distribution. Another related issue is whether housing-related policies raise potential trade-offs between equity, inequality reduction, and other policy objectives; these other objectives include employment growth, productivity growth, and macroeconomic resilience. Informed by the stylized facts and existing evidence, this paper discusses housing-related policy reforms to promote inclusiveness and social mobility, to enhance efficiency in the allocation of labor and capital, and to strengthen macroeconomic resilience.