The housing fulcrum: Balancing economic and social factors in housing research and policy

Abstract

We discuss the pivotal role that housing plays for both social and economic outcomes. All people need to be housed, and housing circumstances help determine social outcomes, especially for vulnerable groups. We outline an analytical framework that treats housing as a dynamic system, incorporating the life‐cycles of both individuals/households and houses. Each is long‐lived; decisions impact on housing for decades. This approach is relevant to the development of housing research and housing policy. We illustrate the issues with reference to the relationship between rental yields and measures of deprivation across New Zealand. The surprising nature of this relationship has consequences regarding potential poverty traps and wealth disparities. While highlighting an important housing market issue, any policy response to this issue is complicated by the need to take account of the life‐cycles of both individuals and of houses, and by the long‐lasting impacts of decisions.     

Deprivation and the well-being of children and young people in Taiwan

This article draws on data from the second wave of the Taiwan Panel Study of Children and Youth survey to explore the relationship between deprivation and subjective well-being among children and young people in Taiwan using a child-centric approach. The survey data allows the deprivation status of disadvantaged children and young people to be identified using information that they themselves have provided. The results indicate that item-specific deprivation rates and the overall intensity of deprivation are generally higher among children. Further analysis reveals that deprivation is associated with lower levels of subjective well-being and poorer educational outcomes among both groups.     

A multilevel Bayesian model for contextual effect of material deprivation

The relationship between socioeconomic factors and health has been studied in many circumstances. Whether the association takes place at individual level only, or also at population level (contextual effect) is still unclear. We present a multilevel hierarchical Bayesian model to investigate the joint contribution of individual and population-based socioeconomic factors to mortality, using data from the census cohort of the general population of the city of Florence, Italy (Tuscany Longitudinal Study, 1991-1995). Evidence supporting a contextual effect of deprivation on mortality at the very fine level of aggregation is found. Inappropriate modelling of individual and aggregate variables could strongly bias effect estimates.Received: 10 January 2002, Revised: 23 June 2003, The research on Tuscany Longitudinal Study (Studio Longitudinale Toscano, SLTo) was supported by the Regione Toscana Servizio Statistica.     

A distribution-free test for deprivation dominance

The Raw1sian perspective on social policy pays particular attentionto the least advantaged members of society, but how should "the least advantaged" be identified? The concept of deprivation dominance operationalizes in part the Rawlsian evaluation of the welfare of the least advantaged members of society, but a statistical procedure for testing deprivation dominance is needed. In this paper, we construct a new distribution-free test for deprivation dominance and apply i t to Canadian income survey data     

Towards New Indicators of Disadvantage: Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Australia

Concern over the reliability of conventional poverty studies has focused attention on the need to demonstrate that those identified as poor are actually experiencing hardship. This paper takes a step in this direction by examining poverty using a living standards approach derived from the literature on deprivation and social exclusion. Deprivation – defined as an enforced lack of socially perceived necessities – has emerged as a way of identifying who is missing out on what the community regards as the necessities (or essentials) of life. Social exclusion – which exists when individuals do not participate in key activities in society – has opened up new areas of inquiry relating to a lack of connectedness between individuals, the communities in which they live, and key economic and social processes. The findings indicate that many Australians face deprivation and exclusion in numerous aspects of their lives, and that those defined as poor in income terms are different from those who are deprived or excluded. The low overlap between the three indicators implies that they all have a role to play in documenting the extent of social disadvantage and helping to identify the factors that contribute to its various manifestations.     

Poverty and deprivation among children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Although there is now a large body of literature on poverty in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there remains a dearth of comparative analysis of child poverty and wellbeing. This article uses household survey microdata for the period 2001–2003 to compare absolute poverty, relative poverty, material deprivation and participation in schooling among children in five countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan. The analysis shows that low absolute levels of household consumption are associated with other deprivation indicators and with children's participation in schooling. The article also highlights the usefulness of relative poverty measures that effectively identify children at risk of exclusion in even the poorest countries in the region. The article concludes by arguing that household consumption is a good indicator of child poverty and deprivation in the region, and that relative poverty measures should be more widely used in monitoring global targets for poverty reduction.     

Risk factors for the prevalence of domestic violence against women in Cyprus

This paper, which is based on the first national survey on domestic violence against women in Cyprus, presents the risk factors associated with the prevalence of domestic violence. The sample size of the survey is 1107 Greek-speaking women living in the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. Overall, 28% of the women that took part in the survey report to have suffered domestic violence from their partner or husband at least once in their lives. Multiple logistic regression shows that age, marital status, place of living and family budget are significant risk factors for the prevalence of domestic violence against women in Cyprus.     

不同所有制企业职工工作满足感比较

企业职工的工作满足感存在所有制差别,国有企业职工的物质满足感明显低于外资企业,非物质满足感略高于外资企业。虽然工作满足感受到职工的性别、年龄、户籍身份的影响,而且国有企业与外资企业职工的构成存在以上差别,但在控制以上因数后,满足感的所有制差别仍然存在。对职工工作满足感所有制差别的解释一工作满足感与权利意识相关,权利意识越高,期望值越高,越容易产生不满足感;解释二工作满足感与剥夺感相关,剥夺感越高,不满足感越高。而职工对公有制企业中的职工权利有较强的意识。同时国有企业职工的相对剥夺感高于外资企业。     

群际关系的社会心理机制探析

群际关系是指人们把自己看做不同社会群体的成员而非单独的个体而发生的相互作用,具有易冲突性的特点。影响群际关系的主要因素包括社会类别化、相对被剥夺感、威胁与反威胁、信任与不信任。我们可以采用再类别化、交叉类别化、多元文化主义、接触、合作与相互依存、减少威胁、运用规范使冲突去人格化和第三方干预等方法来减少群际冲突,改善群际关系。     

城市居民相对剥夺感的实证研究

问卷调查的结果表明 ,我国城市居民的相对剥夺感相当强烈 ,尽管人们的生活水平大幅度提高了 ,但人们普遍感到自己的相对社会地位和相对经济收入下降了。这种相对剥夺感的强烈程度与被访者的个人生活状况和对社会现实的评价有关。社会利益的调整和价值观念的冲突是相对剥夺感产生的重要原因