2023 (LIS)²ER workshop: “Housing Policy and Wealth Inequality”

LIS and LISER convene the fourth international scientific workshop in the realm of the (LIS)²ER initiative on “Housing Policy and Wealth Inequality”. This year’s workshop is organised in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg’s PROPEL (PROactive Policymaking for Equal Lives) project, which studies the causes and consequences of housing inequality, and is funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).

The study of housing and wealth inequality is crucial and highly relevant in today’s societies. Housing serves as a fundamental human need and is closely linked to households’ quality of life. Inequalities in access to safe, affordable housing can perpetuate cycles of poverty and limit opportunities for social and economic mobility. Importantly, housing accounts for the largest share in households’ asset portfolios and thus serves as a primary means of wealth accumulation over the life-cycle and across generations. Housing can be considered to be the `asset of the middle class’. In most developed countries, at least twothirds of households own their primary residence, although this is mostly financed by mortgages. A climate of rising house prices since the 1980s, combined with more recent inflationary pressures, is threatening the middle-class vision of home ownership for all, which can lead to social unrest and political instability. It is therefore not surprising that housing is once again at the centre of political agendas.

Against this backdrop, the 2023 (LIS)²ER workshop on aims to discuss research that enables an understanding of the root causes and consequences of inequalities in housing and wealth. The workshop aims to provide a forum for the discussion of novel research and findings on these issues, and an opportunity for scholars to meet and exchange ideas.

Programme

The full program is available here.

Organizing Committee

• Lindsay Flynn (University of Luxembourg)
• Teresa Munzi (LIS)
• Eugenio Peluso (LISER)
• Petra Sauer (LIS, LISER)
• Philippe Van Kerm (LISER, University of Luxembourg) .

Available presentations

Please find below the list of presentations of the workshop sessions:

• Housing inequality and status competition across and within countries by Nora Waitkus (Tilburg University and London School of Economics)
• The Impact of Housing on Wealth Inequality by Rolf Aaberge (NFS, Department of Economics, University of Oslo and Research Department, Statistics Norway)
• Home ownership and cohorts in a comparative perspective (2000-2020): rewealthization as a trend of increasing inequality and distortion within income groups and occupational classes by Louis Chauvel(Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI) and University of Luxembourg)
• Housing and poverty in Europe by Rod Hick (Professor of Social Policy, Cardiff University)
• Housing Policy Impacts on Poverty and Inequality in Europe by Guillaume Bérard (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER))
• Housing Wealth and Young People by Lindsay Flynn (University of Luxembourg)
• Precarious Housing and the Private Rental Sector:The Case of Ireland by Richard Waldron (Queen’s University Belfast)
• Who Bears the Burden of Real Estate Transfer Taxes? Evidence from the German Housing Market by Carla Krolage (University of Regensburg & ifo Institute)
• Disentangling the Effects of Polycrisis and Policy Changes Shaking the Austrian Housing Market: Pandemic, Tightened Bank Lending Criteria and Inflation by Sofie R. Waltl (University of Cambridge and Vienna University of Economics and Business )
• Heterogeneous-Agent Model of Household Mortgages in Luxembourg: Responses to the Covid-19 Shock by Christos Koulovatianos (University of Luxembourg)

More information on the previous workshops carried out through the (LIS)²ER initiative, can be found here for the 2022 edition, here for the 2021 edition, and here for the 2020 edition.