An Institutional Economic Analysis of the Decision to Do-it-yourself in Housing Renovation

Ti-Ching Peng

Urban Studies, 2013, vol. 50, issue 9, 1796-1816

Abstract: This paper examines home renovators’ decision in choosing do-it-yourself (DIY) or hiring contractors. DIY may reduce financial pressure but may lead to potential domestic discord and perils of incompetence; hiring contractors may alleviate time pressures but may require more financial resource. This choice is modelled as analogous to Williamson’s corporate strategic decision between ‘outsourcing’ and ‘internalisation’ in the context of vertical integration, and extended via Richardson’s capabilities-based theory, with social reputation effect taken into account. Based on a survey of Brisbane home renovators, it is found that the Richardson’s thesis seems stronger than the Williamson’s when applied to housing renovation and that ‘trust’ issues in respect of contractors are paramount.

Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098012468343 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:9:p:1796-1816

DOI: 10.1177/0042098012468343

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().