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Non-cash benefits from social housing in Europe: a comparative perspective

Author

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  • Markus M. Grabka
  • Gerlinde Verbist

Abstract

Most of the available comparative empirical evidence on levels and trends in income inequalities and poverty in OECD countries relies on the concept of household disposable cash income, thus ignoring the services governments provide to households. Including those services matters a lot, however, for policy interpretation. While cash housing benefits are generally included in household disposable income, the effect of social housing is not accounted for. This may provide a misleading picture of the impact of overall housing policies on inequality and poverty, as some countries use different policies to help households meet their housing expenses. In this paper we study the value of the in-kind benefit households receive by living in social housing accommodation. For this purpose we calculate estimates of imputed rent, which until now has mainly been used to estimate the benefit derived from homeownership. We then analyse how these benefits are distributed over the population and how they help to combat poverty. Finally, in a case study for Germany, we compare cash and in-kind social benefits for housing.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus M. Grabka & Gerlinde Verbist, 2015. "Non-cash benefits from social housing in Europe: a comparative perspective," ImPRovE Working Papers 15/07, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    • Handle: RePEc:hdl:improv:1507
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Markus Zimmermann, 2022. "Housing Expenditure and Income Inequality," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1709-1736.
    2. Kilgarriff, Paul & Charlton, Martin & Foley, Ronan & O'Donoghue, Cathal, 2019. "The impact of housing consumption value on the spatial distribution of welfare," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-130.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social housing; non-cash income; imputed rent; income distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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