The Political Economy Of Housing

Abstract

In a paper to be discussed at a conference to which experts in many fields and from many countries will contribute, it may be helpful to survey the context — the social, economic, and political environment —within which a government’s housing policies develop, with the aim of identifying and relating to each other the principal features of this environment and the principal academic disciplines capable of throwing light upon it. My purpose is not primarily to advance economic theory—still less to advocate any specific housing policy — but to explore the extent and character of the impact which governments can make upon the housing conditoins of their countries, and the factors which determine the scope and limits of government activity in this field.

‘Political economy: the art of managing the resources of a people and of its government.’ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.