A Spatial Econometric Model of the Scottish Housing Market, 1980-81

Carruthers, David Thomas (1988) A Spatial Econometric Model of the Scottish Housing Market, 1980-81. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis formulates a spatial econometric model of the Scottish housing market over the period 1980-81. The study is concerned with the role of space in the dynamic operation of an owner-occupier housing market, particularly as applied at the regional level. These four considerations - space, dynamics, tenure, and level of aggregation - are selected for attention after an examination of the approaches to housing market models in a number of disciplines, but in particular within economic and econometric models. It is found that the approaches used in other disciplines can be treated as alternative forms of, or special cases of, those based on the utility maximisation premise of economic theory. Existing utility maximisation housing models are generally specified at the urban level of aggregation, with private rental as the dominant form of tenure. Dynamics are an integral part of urban simulation models but in general the attainability of equilibrium is assumed. The aggregate counterpart to an urban model is a macroeconometric model, which is purely dynamic in specification, and the results from this approach are contrasted with those of microeconomic theories. It is shown that assumptions about the spatial structure of the housing market are implicit in macroeconometric models. Three housing market dimensions or analytical categories - space, time, and house type - are identified, and this provides a basis for the classification of existing models. A matrix formulation is used to specify the theoretical structure of a dynamic regional owner-occupier model, and. the spatial econometric technique of the weights matrix is introduced as a parsimonious method for operationalising the theoretical structure. Empirical estimation of demand and supply equations gives an indication of the nature and scale of spatial interaction effects at the regional level. These indicate that there are grounds for including regional level analysis in any discussion of the operation of the housing market. The results are compared with those of the existing housing market literature, and possible extensions of the matrix formulation show that it is a useful framework for urban level analysis as well. The policy implications which follow from this thesis are then discussed and current policy is examined in the light of these findings.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Economic history
• Date of Award: 1988
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1988-77259
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• Last Modified: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/77259