The Incidence of UK Housing Benefit: Evidence from the 1990s Reforms

Stephen Gibbons and Alan Manning

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Housing Benefit (HB) in the UK subsidizes the rent of tenants in both the private and public sectors. Its share in total welfare benefits has risen markedly through time and there is widespread dissatisfaction with it. But, reform has been very slow. One important issue is the extent to which the incidence of HB is actually on the tenants. Exploiting two data sets from the mid-1990s when the subsidy regime changed for some tenants but not for others, this paper explores the incidence. We find that some of the incidence is on landlords though our two data sets differ in the extent to which this is true. We also find evidence in support of a ¿matching¿ model of the rental market rather tha n a perfectly competitive one.

Keywords: Housing Subsidies; Tax Incidence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H22 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-pbe and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The incidence of UK housing benefit: Evidence from the 1990s reforms (2006)
Working Paper: The incidence of UK housing benefit: evidence from the 1990s reforms (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0597

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