The Unassuming Economist

From a new VoxDev post by Dani Rodrik:

“A new generation of work has been moving us beyond the largely ideological debates of the past to a more contextual, pragmatic understanding. The most recent strand is rooted in two developments. One of these is the indisputable economic success of China, a country that has made liberal use of a diverse array of industrial policies: cheap loans, public ownership, local-content requirements, export subsidies, and technology-transfer requirements. The other is the dissatisfaction with Washington Consensus-type policies, which in Latin America and elsewhere produced weak returns in terms of structural change and productive diversification.

The Inter-American Development Bank has been at the forefront of the new pragmatic approach, producing a series of case studies of successful and less successful interventions in Latin America. These studies analyse in some detail the nature of public-sector engagement with the private sector in a range of tradable industries (Sabel et al. 2012, IDB 2014, Fernández-Arias et al. 2016). One important difference from the earlier tradition of case studies is that these pay much greater attention to methodological issues and the problems of causal inference. Consequently, they are duly careful about the conclusions that can be drawn. Nevertheless, they provide considerable insight about appropriate institutional frameworks.

These studies build on existing works emphasising the role of disciplined public-private collaboration as a “search engine” for identifying the most important constraints faced by entrepreneurs, as well as the most appropriate mechanisms for alleviating such constraints (Hidalgo et al. 2007, Hausmann et al. 2005, Rodrik 2007, 2008, Sabel 2007). When designed appropriately, public–private collaboration can ameliorate both of the risks identified above: lack of information and political capture. Their work draws on the experience of successful practitioners (e.g. Ghezzi 2017), while informing them in turn.”

Continue reading here.

On cross-country:

• European Mortgage Markets – European Mortgage Federation
• Romano Prodi: “We can show leadership in Europe now in support of affordable housing” An interview with the former European Commission President – Housing Europe
• An action plan for affordable housing in the EU – Housing Europe
• The Sharing Economy and Housing Affordability: What Impact? What Solutions? – Housing Europe

On the US:

• Dynamism Diminished: The Role of Housing Markets and Credit Conditions – University of Chicago
• Zoning Reform Alone Won’t Make Housing More Affordable – Bloomberg
• How Affordable Housing Can Improve the American Economy – Citylab
• No, Zoning Reform Isn’t Magic. But It’s Crucial. – Citylab
• Fewer Homes for Median Earners – New York Times
• Perspectives on Housing Supply and Affordability – NYU Furman Center
• The Airbnb Effect: It’s Not Just Rising Home Prices – Citylab
• Does Upzoning Boost the Housing Supply and Lower Prices? Maybe Not. – Citylab
• Mortgage Risk Since 1990 – Federal Housing Finance Agency
• In my back yard: Neighbourhood spillovers in mortgage foreclosure – VoxEU
• The Airbnb Effect: It’s Not Just Rising Home Prices – Citylab
• Upzoning Chicago: Impacts of a Zoning Reform on Property Values and Housing Construction – Urban Affairs Review
• Federal Reserve policy and housing: A goal too far – Economic Analysis and Policy
• What Modern-Day Housing Discrimination Looks Like: A Conversation with the National Fair Housing Alliance – Zillow
• How Minimum Zoning Mandates Can Improve Housing Markets and Expand Opportunity – The Aspen Institute
• To overcome its housing crisis, Calfornia needs YIMBY to become the new NIMBY – Los Angeles Times
• Mortgage rates fall on worries about global economy – MarketWatch

On other countries:

• [Australia] Australia’s Housing Downturn Deepens as Prices Hit 2016 Levels – Bloomberg
• [Australia] RBA Seen Riding Out Australia Property Slump If Jobs Stay Robust – Bloomberg
• [Australia] Australia Keeps Rates on Hold Despite Pressure from Property Slump – Bloomberg
• [Canada] Canada’s banking regulator says mortgage stress test must be monitored – Reuters
• [Netherlands] Dutch banks see market share in home mortgage lending stabilize – De Nederlandsche Bank
• [New Zealand] The New Zealand real estate problem, with reference to Palmerston North – Marginal Revolution
• [Nigeria] Land grabbers resurgence in Lagos threatens homeownership – The Guardian
• [Panama] Panama’s property prices are booming – Global Property Guide
• [United Kingdom] Would rent controls work in London? – Financial Times

Photo by Aliis Sinisalu

From the IMF’s latest report on Italy:

From the IMF’s latest report on Poland:

“Current strong housing demand is financed to a greater extent than before the GFC with buyers’ own resources. Rising construction costs have slowed the supply of new housing, and nominal house prices in some regions have risen to pre-GFC levels. Nonetheless, affordability remains comfortable owing to strong growth of household incomes.”

From Conversable Economist:

“Steve Hanke has devoted considerable effort to building up data on hyperinflations during the last century or so. He offers a quick overview of this work in Forbes (January 20, 2019). Below is his list of hyperinflations. When it comes to Venezuela, he writes:

Now, let’s turn to the world’s only current hyperinflation: Venezuela. It ranks as the 23rd most severe. Today, the annual rate of inflation is 120,810%/yr. While this rate is modest by hyperinflation standards, the duration of Venezuela’s hyperinflation episode, as of today, is long: 27 months. Only four episodes of hyperinflation have been more long-lived.

Here’s the table of all 58 hyperinflations:”