Compounding financial repression with rigid urban regulations : lessons of the Korea housing market

The objective of this paper is to explore the interactions between financial and urban policies, and their joint impact on the performance of the housing sector during the course of economic development. The central hypothesis is that extended periods of financial repression and the scarcity of mortgage lending have generated significant distortions in the output of the Korean housing sector. In addition, combined with very restrictive urban planning and land use regulations, this financial situation may have led to under-investment in the urban sector of Korea during much of the past two decades. A broader question which is left unaddresssed is whether such distortions and under-investment have been an integral component of the rapid growth policies of other East Asian market economies such as Japan and Taiwan, or what differences there might be. The analysis in the paper progresses from economic growth policies and directed credit to urban outcomes; the key link is the behavior of Korean households.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Housing Finance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research

Housing and labor market distortions in Poland : linkages and policy implications

Poland's housing and macroeconomic policies have restricted investments in housing and urban infrastructure to a level well below that of other European countries. This has resulted in a shortage of housing typified by 15 to 20 year waits for government sponsored housing. Shortages of this magnitude are likely to cause distortions with impacts on patterns of savings and consumption, the price level, and on the functioning of labor markets. This paper focuses particularly on how housing market distortions are transmitted to labor markets, with impacts on rates of migration, relative wage levels among different regions, and, by implication, on the productivity of the Polish work force. The basic thesis of the paper is that if housing markets are prevented from reaching their competitive equilibrium that labor markets will similarly be prevented. Evidence is examined on the extent of housing and labor market disequilibria, and estimates econometric models that relate internal migration and relative wages to alternative measures of housing market disequilibria. From these analyses it is concluded that labor markets are in fact distorted by housing market distortions, with potentially major macroeconomic costs.Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Housing&Human Habitats,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Urban Housing

Cost and benefits of rent control in Kumasi, Ghana

Over the past forty years, rent control has been a feature of housing in Ghana. This study focusses on the housing market in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. The authors examine the characteristics of the rent control regime in force there, and assess the costs and benefits of rent control, on landlords and on tenants, and its effect on the housing stock. Rent control has been successful in ensuring that housing is very inexpensive for most households, in both absolute terms and in the proportion of income devoted to rent. Thesecontrols have deprived landlords of economic returns on their property, causing them to withdraw stock from renting to use for their own family members and to reduce maintenance. However, rent control is not the only constraint on the housing market, in Kumasi or in Ghana. The paper also describes other supply side and regulatory constraints; such as those affecting land, finance, and choice of building design and materials. A number of options for relaxation/decontrol are studied with the aid of a simple present value model. Along with decontrol of new construction it is recommended that floating up and out of controls over a five year period should be considered, along with policy changes to ensure ready supplies of land, finance, and building materials. Such policies are essential, given that private housing investment provides the great majority of rooms in Ghanaian urban areas.Non Bank Financial Institutions,Banks&Banking Reform,Housing Finance,Housing&Human Habitats,Economic Theory&Research

Model Pelatihan Kewiraswastaan Bidang Jasa Keterampilan Otomotif

The title of the research is “The Model of Entrepreneurship Training for Automotive Vocational Skills”.The approach of this research is research and development, in which the main approach is qualitative that is complemented with the quantitative approach in order to obtain the preliminary exploration data. The instruments of research are questionnaire, interview, observation and test. The findings of research indicate as in the follow:The causes of the juvenile dropped out of school are the factors of the: (a) juvenile psychological, (b) economic of family, and (c) environment where they live. The development of conceptual model to solve the problems of juvenile dropped out of school can be designed by using the approach of needs assessment analysis for training. The activities are required in the development of conceptual model are: (a) recruitment of trainee candidates, (b) determination the hypothesis of competency, (c) scheduling, (d) facilities and area/(building for training), and (d) implementation and program evaluation.The empirical model was developed based on the conceptual model through the validation, analysis, and shared agreement among the researcher, community learning centre (PKBM), university, entrepreneurs and training specialists.The finding of try-out and implementation of empirical model of entrepreneurship training for automotive vocational skills indicated the availability aim and objective achievement; and that's why it can be stated that the empirical model is effective

Designing for Cost Transparency in Investment Advisory Service Encounters

Investment advisory services of financial service providers (FSPs) exhibit several characteristics that are detrimental to advisory quality. The interaction of advisor and client is strained by a lack of transparency regarding the advisory process (what activities are performed and why) and the information used therein (what information is used for what purpose and with what effect), as well as regarding the precise costs of the service and the recommended products. In prior research, we suggested that process and information transparency issues may be appropriately addressed with collaborative information technology (IT) artifacts. In this paper, we argue that collaborative, transparent artifacts may also be a premise of enabling cost transparency. To this end, we describe a complete research cycle of designing, implementing, and evaluating a shared cost-transparent IT artifact to support client-advisor interaction in investment advisory encounters. Evaluation results suggest the efficacy of our design in improving the clients' perceived cost transparency as well as increase their satisfaction and their willingness to pay for the received investment advice. These findings may also challenge the common belief of FSPs that transparent, fee-based advisory services would neither be accepted by clients nor be economically viable. Practical implications of these findings for designing advisory encounters with supportive IT are discusse