The city government of Munich regularly publishes a booklet called the “Mietspiegel” (MS). The MS basically contains a verbal description of an expert system. It allows to calculate the estimated fair rent for a flat. By hand, one may need a weekend to do so. With our computerized version, “The Munich Rent Advisor”, the user just fills in a form in a few minutes and the rent is calculated immed...

We analyze the distributional effects of rent-seeking via financial sector in a model calibrated to US data. Rent-seeking implies misallocation resources that increases wealth inequality among non-rent-seekers and for whole economy. A deterioration institutional quality implying more leads welfare losses non-rent-seekers, especially those with higher earnings initial wealth, because they are mo...

We study the rent-seeking phenomenon using a simple, static general equilibrium model. The economy consists of two sectors, both employing constant returns-to-scale technology with labor as its sole input. One sectors is monopoly, where continuum agents compete for share monopoly profits (i.e. rent). Agents are heterogeneous in productivity and ability: they face choice between engaging (produc...

BACKGROUND Actual or perceived status, such as housing tenure, may impact on health through stress-inducing social comparisons. Studies of how status change impacts mental health change are rare but important because they are less prone to confounding. METHODS We used data from the British Household Panel Survey to compare psychological distress in local authority renters who opted to buy the...

There has been considerable debate in recent years regarding the role of behavioral factors in determining housing prices. The question of whether psychology matters in the housing market has been settled long ago: the answer is yes. Rather, economists are now debating in what ways psychology impacts market behavior and how large an effect this impact has on housing prices. One oft-cited exampl...

In the wake of a judging controversy at the Winter 2002 Olympic games, the governing council of the International Skating Union scrapped its judging system, replacing it with a new system which uses scores from only some of the judges, selected randomly. This means that the composition of the awarding committee is unknown. I examine rent-seeking expenditures when the composition of the committe...

Abstract Housing affordability is the main policy challenge for most large cities in world. Zoning changes, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits are levers employed by policymakers. How effective they at combatting crisis? We build a dynamic stochastic spatial equilibrium model to evaluate effect of these policies on well-being its citizens. The endogenizes house prices, rents, const...