Public Housing Units vs. Housing Vouchers: Accessibility, Local Public Goods, and Welfare

Charles Leung, Sinan Sarpça and Kuzey Yilmaz

No 574, RCER Working Papers from University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER)

Abstract: We develop a general equilibrium model of residential choice and study the effects of two housing aid policies, public housing units and housing vouchers. Land is differentiated by both residential accessibility and local public goods, and the provision levels of local public goods are determined by property tax revenues and neighborhood compositions. Households differ in their incomes and preferences for local public goods. Housing aid policies are financed by general income taxes. We discuss how the location of public housing units is a fundamental policy variable, in addition to the numbers and sizes of units, and argue that vouchers not only cause less distortion for social welfare compared to public housing, but may also improve overall welfare.

Keywords: Public housing; housing vouchers; housing policy; welfare; residential location choice; local public goods; endogenous sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 H40 H82 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Public housing units vs. housing vouchers: Accessibility, local public goods, and welfare (2012)
Working Paper: Public housing units vs. housing vouchers: accessibility, local public goods, and welfare (2012)
Working Paper: Public Housing Units vs. Housing Vouchers: Accessibility, Local Public Goods, and Welfare (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:roc:rocher:574

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