Please read the abstract in the dissertation. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

The development of ‘Affordable housing’ has become an urgent and important topic of discussion in China. Unlike in western countries where the social welfare system has been set up for many years and the public housing system also is mature, in most of Asian countries, the social welfare systems are still weak in relation to their large amount of low-income populations. The gap between rich and poor is considerable large, and is still increasing; many people with low-income could not afford their own houses since the minimum down-payment and the entry-requirement of real estate market are both increasingly high; the ‘Affordable housing’ is therefore very difficult to be developed appropriately under this circumstances. The thesis provides an overview of the development of ‘affordable housing’ around the world, and a brief introduction of the relevant situation in China, in order to find out some applicable policy suggestions for the development of Guangzhou city’s affordable housing market from such previous experiences. Public housing system in U.S. and Sweden has a strength foundation for many decades, while China is a developing country with the largest population in the world, in order to solve the housing problem, Chinese government start to implement public housing policies and establish the ‘public housing system with Chinese style’. The Guangzhou affordable housing policies are based on the Chinese style public housing system, given the similar culture background and economy foundation, Singapore and Hong Kong’s public housing development process has more value for Guangzhou City Government to learn from. Results from questionnaire and analysis are shown for the current housing statu in Guangzhou City, which reflect some realistic housing problems and it takes a long term for householder to achieve down payment and ‘full house ownership’.

The 1991 oil fires that were set by the Iraqis as they retreated from Kuwait during the Gulf War are still considered the worst and biggest oil fires in the history of the world. An initial study was conducted in 1992 to investigate the negative effects of the pollution caused by the oil fires on the socio-psychological values of housing and the cultural meanings of home and homeownership of Kuwaiti households. In 1994, a follow-up study was conducted to examine how time between the two studies and treatments of residential interiors and exteriors might have affected Kuwaiti households' perceptions regarding the negative effects of ORP on the socio-psychological values of housing, cultural meanings of home and homeownership, and housing satisfaction. Three-hundred and forty-seven non-smoking and non-institutionalized Kuwaiti household members participated in the follow-up study. Only eighty-nine of the participants in the follow-up study has also participated in the initial study. All the participants were 18 years or older, and were randomly selected from 60 different cities and suburbs in Kuwait. Six trained interviewers collected the data via telephone using survey questionnaires constructed specifically for that purpose. A comparison of frequencies and percentages from both the initial and the follow-up studies showed that more than two-thirds of the participants continued to be very concerned about the unclear hazardous effects of ORP on their health and safety and the health and safety of their family members. There was a decrease in the negative effects of ORP on most of the socio-psychological values of housing and cultural meanings of home and homeownership. The overall housing satisfaction of Kuwaiti households with their contaminated homes remained high. It was concluded from this study that only time and treatment of residential interiors had significant influence on Kuwaiti households’ perceptions about the negative effects of ORP on the housing values, cultural meanings of home and homeownership, and housing satisfaction. The implications of this study could be beneficial mainly to Kuwaiti households who wish to solve their housing problems caused by ORP; to the Kuwaiti government to seek, through the United Nations, financial compensations from Iraq; and to Kuwait University and Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research to expand their research base and investigate the best methods to remedy the problem of ORP in the Kuwaiti residential environment. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research study was to identify, from the perception of realtors, how prepared first-time homebuyers (FTHBs) are when purchasing a home and to discover what kind of issues and problems arose during the home-buying process. This study also identified common factors used by realtors to identify: how FTHBs are prepared, usefulness of FTHB workshops, FTHBs' mortgage knowledge, and recommendations to better prepare FTHBs. The goal was twofold: identify areas in the home-buying process where FTHBs are less prepared and provide information to financial educators and real estate agents to help fill the gap in FTHB preparedness. This study covered three main areas of buying a home: pre-purchase preparedness, mortgage finance, and the closing process. Data for this study were collected using an online survey emailed to realtors in the Cache Rich Association of Realtors (CRAR) in Northern Utah. A total of 66 realtors responded to the survey. Descriptive statistics, matched pair t tests, correlations, and simple regression analyses were used. Overall, realtors find their FTHB clients to be less than somewhat prepared. This is evident when the mean percentage of FTHBs that realtors stated were well-prepared for homeownership was only 44.4%. According to realtors' perceptions, many FTHBs did not have their personal finances in order and poorly understood the cost of obtaining a mortgage and its process. The analysis of the data collected from realtors' responses also identified the most frequent problem or issue that arose during the home-buying process was obtaining a mortgage. When asked if FTHB workshops are useful, 60% of realtors perceived them to be more than somewhat useful. Reasons for their usefulness included being educational, beneficial, and preparing FTHBs for buying a home. Results also indicated that the level of mortgage knowledge and knowledge about housing sustainability directly related to the level of pre-purchase preparedness of FTHBs as perceived by realtors. When pre-purchase preparedness levels were low, mortgage knowledge and knowledge about housing sustainability levels were also perceived to be low. In the end, realtors offered their suggestions on how to better prepare FTHBs for homeownership and their answer to this question was to have FTHBs work with a qualified realtor and network of professionals. The second most frequent response was to educate FTHBs on affordability and housing sustainability.

本研究主要探討台灣地區自有住宅與生育決策之間的關連性，利用1994年至2005年台灣地區23個縣市之自有住宅率與一般生育率作為實證研究的資料，欲說明一個家庭在面對預算限制式之下，自有住宅對於生育行為的影響，究竟兩者之間存在互補關係抑或競爭關係。本文參考簡單生育理論模型建立迴歸模型，再利用Panel Data實證模型，分析自有住宅與生育決策之間的關係。 根據台灣地區之官方資料所得出的實證結果，得出以下結論：當生育率遞延一期之時，住宅的持有對於生育行為存在負向關係，顯示出自有住宅於購買初期會延後生育決策的形成，兩者之間存在資源排擠效果；而當生育率遞延兩期時，兩者之間的資源排擠效果更為強大。此外，女性受教程度越高，隱含在工作中所獲得的報酬越高，養育子女的機會成本也就越高，與生育率為負向關係。家戶所得亦等同理論預期，與生育率為正向關係。其他變數，如：代表景氣循環的失業率與反應國情文化的龍虎年效應均與原先預期一致，生育行為有著順景氣循環的特性；台灣生育決策與龍虎年息息相關。 / The thesis presents the relationship between home-ownership and the birth of children in Taiwan. Housing factor might affects childbirth in complement or replacement way with limited budget in a family. In this study, general fertility rate represents decision of childbirth and homeownership rate means housing factor. This research uses 1994-2005 panel data from the statistic institutions in Taiwan to examine the factors which influence decision of having children, especially housing factor. The results of the empirical study are summarized as follows: If the decisions of childbirth are lagged a year and two years, they both suffer negative effects from home-ownership. The negative effect of the latter is larger that that of the former. This finding shows that the cost of home-ownership might compete with that of having children. This study also finds that there is a negative relationship between female education and the birth of children. Household income is significant to improve decision of childbirth. Both are consistent with the expectation of theory. Concerning the procyclical behavior of fertility, the study demonstrates that an increase in the unemployment rate generates a decrease in fertility. In addition, having children is correlated with the cultural factors.

The first essay studies the long term trend of internal migration in the United States. Over the last forty years, there has only been a modest change in the overall interstate migration rate in the United States. However, different demographic groups have seen very different patterns of changes. The migration rate for families with two college graduate spouses dropped from 5.66% in 1965-1970 to 2.82% in 2000-2005. As for the families with college-graduate husband, it dropped from 4.05% to 2.15% during the same time frame. Interstate migration rates for other types of families or singles have seen little change. This paper extends Mincer’s family migration model into a search framework and directly estimates the effects of female labor force participation, spousal earnings ratio, correlation of earnings from job offers, and home ownership on the migration propensity by using the Current Population Survey (CPS) data in the period of 1982-2005. Endogeniety issues of these variables are appropriately addressed. According to the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis, we find that the increasing female labor force participation rate and earnings ratio of wife to husband are the primary determinants for the decline in the interstate migration rate of families with two college-graduate spouses and families with a college-graduate husband in the 1980s-1990s. The rising home ownership accounts for a large portion of the decrease in the migration rate of highly educated families, in the 1990s-2000s. The second essay studies the impact of changing youth cohort size on the unemployment rate. Although an increase in youth cohort size is often found to exert an upward pressure on the aggregate unemployment rate, it has been provided some empirical evidences and a theoretical model to the contrary. We find that the estimated elasticity of unemployment rate is quite sensitive in a fixed effect model, with the inclusion of year dummies, when there is a strong temporal correlation between the youth cohort size and the unemployment rate. Both the sign and magnitude of the estimates vary significantly when using data from different time periods. We propose an alternative way to control for the fixed effects and obtain consistent estimates across the time periods in the United States. Our results support the conventional wisdom of positive correlation between youth cohort size and aggregate unemployment rate. This positive effect of the youth cohort size is strongest for the youngest workers and gradually diminishes for older workers, which implies that the young and the prime age workers are not perfect substitutes to the employers.

This thesis analyzes the tenure choice behavior of Turkish household heads over the period between 1985 and 2000, using a method of logit. The probability of owning the housing unit an individual lives in, is modeled by using demographic, labor market, migrational characteristics of the household head and the provincial differences as the explanatory variables. The results show that age and education of the household heads are positively correlated with probability of homeownership and they are the most influential factors determining the tenure choice of Turkish households and the discrepancy in the homeownership rates of the regions. The empirical analysis also displays that internal migrants have lower probabilities than natives and the length of stay matters the most for the tenure choice of internal migrants.

<p>In 2010, approximately 84% of the American population lives in a metropolitan area. Different metropolitan areas are characterized by distinct labor markets and economies, housing markets and residential patterns, socioeconomic and demographic factors, and according to some, even distinct 'spirits.' The nature and influence of such structural factors lie at the heart of urban sociology, and have particularly profound effects on patterns of racial and ethnic stratification. This dissertation examines new urban structural changes arising within recent decades, and their implications for racial/ethnic stratification. Specifically, I study the transition to the 'new economy' and racial/ethnic wage inequality; increases in the level and inequality of housing prices and racial/ethnic stratification in homeownership; and increased income inequality, combined with population aging, and racial/ethnic disparities in disability and poor health. I measure metropolitan-level structural factors and racial/ethnic inequalities with data from 5% samples of the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses; the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS); and the 1999-2001 and 2009-2011 Current Population Surveys (CPS). Cross-sectional multilevel regression models examine the spatial distributions of structural factors and racial/ethnic inequality, and the fixed-effects regression models identify the impact of changes in structural factors over time on observed trends in racial stratification. Additionally, I distinguish between effects on minority-white gaps in resource access, and minorities' levels of resource access. This dissertation also makes novel contributions to the field by empirically documenting complex patterns of inequalities among the country's four largest racial and ethnic groups. Perhaps most relevant to theories of racial stratification, this dissertation demonstrates seemingly race-neutral structural changes can have racially stratified effects. </p><p>Chapter 1 describes the foundational literature in urban sociology and racial/ethnic stratification, and provides an overview of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 measures the transition to the `new economy' with six structural factors of labor markets: skill-biased technological change, financialization, the rise of the creative class, employment casualization, immigration, and deunionization. Overall, the results indicate the observed Latino-white wage gap may be up to 40% larger in 2010 than in the theoretical absence of the new economy, and the black-white wage gap may be up to 31% larger. Chapter 3 focuses on the long-term trend toward higher and more unequally distributed home prices within local housing markets, epitomized by the housing crisis of the late 2000s. Increases in housing market inequality worsen the Asian-white homeownership gap, but narrow the black-white and Latino-white gaps. However, the level of homeownership is reduced for all groups. Chapter 4 empirically tests the frequently-debated Income Inequality Hypothesis, that macro-level income inequality undermines population health, and hypothesizes any negative effect on health is stronger in areas with greater population aging. The results provide no support for the Income Inequality Hypothesis or any of its proposed extensions, but the chapter's analytic approach may be fruitfully applied to future examinations of structural determinants of health. The theoretical and substantive conclusion of the dissertation is that metropolitan areas represent salient, and changing structural contexts that significantly shape patterns racial/ethnic stratification in America.</p> / Dissertation

The main goal of the paper is to find out whether homeownership can have detrimental effect on employment in the Czech Republic. The Oswalds conjecture is tested on the set of panel data across Czech regions between the years of 2005--2012. By testing model similar to the Oswald's I receive the similar result that the rate of homeownership leads to higher rate of unemployment in following years. The second model tested in the paper does not support previous findings that regional rate of homeownership has negative effect on individual's probability of being unemployed. Possible refinements to the model are presented as inspiration for further research.

The demand for social housing has grown recently more than its supply, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK). The existing literature addresses the lack of a sustainability policy and its contribution to the lack of political intent to support the achievement of social housing homeownership predominantly under the Right-to-Buy. This research highlights that several government projects have failed in the past to deliver satisfying outcomes for the public; thus, their value to social housing tenants and public value has been largely neglected. The main aim of this research project is to evaluate social housing policies through the lens of public value that drives the decision-making process and to construct a conceptual framework to enhance the accountability and efficiency of social housing tenants in the context of local government. This has been achieved through key research objectives and the key citizens, barriers and recommendations have been explored to enlighten social housing sustainability policy. This conceptual framework was tested in UK local government authorities and with local citizens who had recently started to address diverse sustainability factors in terms of social housing policy. The result was a qualitative case study enquiry based on the use of focus group-interviews, the vignettes approach and documentary evidence to explore the validity of the conceptual framework as a tool for supporting the decision-making process in this field. The findings obtained from the in-depth case study provided an insight into the social housing evaluation criteria and the influences of a sustainability policy from both a practical background and an internal organisational perspective. The findings addressed the poor affordability of a whole-life value of a property, insufficient funding due to austerity, poor legal frameworks, poor governance, a lack of suitable designs for social cohesion, poverty, the well-organized use of resources and environmental protection.