This dissertation comprises three essays on housing policies. The first chapter evaluates the effect of affordable housing policy on households’ rent burden using the 421-a Tax Exemption Program in New York City. The program requires developers of housing projects in Geographic Exclusion Areas (GEA) to provide 20% of new units as affordable housing for a tax benefit. I find that the program helps to ease households’ rent burden. Furthermore, the GEA restriction affects households’ rent burden heterogeneously, depending on their income level. Specifically, the GEA restriction makes it more likely that low-income households’ rent burden decreases, but middle-class households’ rent burden increases. I suggest that this heterogeneous effect of the program is because developers constructed luxurious market-rate units to cross-subsidize affordable units.
The second chapter evaluates the impact of a housing market stabilization policy, using the Administrative Action for Housing Market Stability in Korea in 2020. In this Action, the authority pervasively designated High-Speculative Areas and Areas subject to Adjustment, in which it imposed stricter regulations on mortgage loan underwriting and levied heavier property tax. I find that the Action mitigated the overheated housing market. Specifically, the designation of regulated areas led to a 5 percent reduction in apartment prices.
In the last chapter, I examine the impact of the housing structure composition of urban areas on greenhouse gas emissions. The housing structure composition in a city have an impact on the commuting patterns of residents living in there, and eventually affect the carbon dioxide emissions generated from transportation sector. I find that a metropolitan city covered by residential units accommodating fewer households generates the higher carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars or light-duty vehicles. Specifically, a one percent point decrease in the share of single-detached housing units causes about 2% less on-road carbon dioxide emissions per person.
본 학위 논문은 주택 정책에 관한 세 편의 논문으로 구성한다. 첫 번째 장에서는 뉴욕시의 서민 주택 정책인 421-a 재산세 감면 정책이 가구의 임대료 부담에 어떤 효과를 미치는지 분석한다. 이를 통해 해당 정책이 뉴욕시 가구의 임대료 부담을 경감시켰으며, 소득 구간에 따라 다른 효과가 있음을 제시한다. 두 번째 장에서는 한국의 주택 가격 안정화 정책의 효과를 평가한다. 그 결과 해당 정책은 주택 가격을 낮추는 효과가 있음을 보인다. 마지막 장에서는 도시의 주택구조의 구성이 온실가스 배출에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 살펴본다. 한 도시의 주택구조는 도시에 사는 사람들의 이동 방식에 영향을 주고, 이동 방식의 차이는 온실가스 배출량에 영향을 준다. 이 연구에서 실제로 단독주택의 비중이 낮은 도시에서 이산화탄소가 적게 배출되는 결과를 확인한다.
