Essays on the economics of housing subsidies

In a perfect market a government needs not to intervene. For several reasons the housing market is not a perfect market and, thus, governments generally tend to intervene. The Dutch government, however, intervenes mainly by subsidies to such an extent that the housing market has become strongly dysfunctional. The problematic functioning of the Dutch housing market makes one wonder to what extent the theoretical reasons to intervene in the housing market still relate to the actual practice. This dissertation covers four empirical essays on different aspects of housing subsidies. In four chapters we investigate the outcome of housing subsidization, both in the owner-occupied and the rented sector, on the value of social landlords’ portfolios, housing consumption, tenure choice and households’ investment behavior in housing. The reader is first introduced in the basics and (a-)typicalities of the Dutch housing market in an introductory chapter.