This dissertation focuses on Austrian housing policy measures and regional housing markets. It places the Austrian situation into a European context and evaluates singular housing policy measures in detail. The evaluation includes aspects of effectiveness, equity, costs, and efficiency. This contribution brings together three empirical essays, each of which has a different focus and addresses particular elements of housing policy. All three papers use empirical methods, but with adjusted approaches according to their underlining research questions: from state finance comparisons, to subsidy calculations for specific households, to hedonic apartment price index construction. Quantitative methods, mainly based on administrative and survey data, are accompanied by qualitative research in the form of expert interviews. Across the three papers, the level of analysis differs and increases in focus: from the level of nation states, to the nine Austrian regions, to the 117 (as of 2015) administrative districts into which the Austrian territory is divided. The first two papers focus on state housing policy measures and evaluate them in an international comparative framework. Both follow different levels of aggregation. The first one takes a very broad view and quantifies the sum of expenses on various state housing policy measures in six EU countries at the level of nation states (Austria, Czech Republic, Great Britain, France, The Netherlands, and Spain). It investigates the structure of state support for the housing sector and establishes numeric estimates of its components (supply-side subsidies, housing benefits, tax advantages and concessions). The second paper focuses on a particular housing policy instrument in Austria: means-tested, income-dependent housing benefits. It analyses the nine regional housing benefit schemes in the context of minimum income schemes. The paper applies a comprehensive residual income approach to housing affordability and identifies market segments and household types where affordability is at risk, in spite of existing benefit schemes. The third paper calculates regional price indexes for second-hand apartments in Austria at the level of administrative districts. It is based on state-of-the-art hedonic methods of house price index construction that control for the varying distribution of apartment characteristics and locations over time. The resulting indexes are an important improvement over indexes based on average prices. All three papers address specific elements of Austrian housing policy and identify areas for policy improvements and necessary future research activity.

Declining fertility rates are an increasingly important topic in today’s Europe. Fertility rates play a significant role in sustaining a stable population and ensuring economic growth and innovation. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of CSOK, a Hungarian housing policy specifically aimed at increasing fertility rates. The research relies on theories such as Becker’s new home economics theory, Quantity-quality trade-off theory, and Willis’s economic theory of family. The study of housing prices and fertility is also provided to understand the relationship between housing and fertility better. The benchmark country for this thesis is Hungary. Using the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we construct a synthetic Hungary to match pretreatment outcomes closely. The findings of this thesis show that the policy has no positive effect on fertility rates and is inefficient in spending government resources. The study highlights the significance of governmental trust, emphasizing the importance of stable economic conditions and a family-friendly environment to effectively increase fertility rates.

This thesis is focused on the analysis of state social support benefits in various districts of the Czech Republic during the period 2006-2014. During this time many legislative changes took place. The main objective of this work is to evaluate these changes in terms of their impact on costs of state social support benefits and find the impact of unemployment on the state social support benefits. The first part of the thesis focuses on the definition of theoretical terms while the second part is dedicated to data analysis.

This thesis deals with housing costs and commuting of professional soldiers of the Army of the Czech Republic. It analyzes not only the cost of housing and commuting , but also the subjective perception of the burden on individual households of soldiers. The sample was analyzed for the entire Army of the Czech Republic , which were represented by soldiers from various units and garrison towns across the Czech Republic . For the final analysis were used data gathered by a questionnaire and also was used secondary data analysis . The result was , among other things , to determine what strategies are used by soldiers to provide their housing and commuting . Other findings are described in the empirical part and at the end of the thesis. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)