Unifying Empirical and Theoretical Models of Housing Supply

Posted: 21 Feb 1997

See all articles by Christopher J. Mayer

Christopher J. Mayer

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

C. Tsuriel Somerville

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Strategy and Business Economics

Date Written: Undated

Abstract

Housing supply plays an important role in the volatility of macroeconomic cycles and the speed with which house prices respond to changes in demand, yet it is understudied in the current literature. In this paper we present and estimate a new model of the supply of residential construction that is consistent with the theoretical treatment of land development and urban growth. The model shows that new housing construction is best described as a function of changes in house prices and costs rather than as a function of the levels of those variables. Previous research that uses the price levels specification has the drawback that a one-time increase in the number of households that raises the level of real house prices leads to a permanent jump in new construction and thus an infinite increase in the stock of housing. The empirical tests of the model support our new specification, which performs better than alternative models in out-of-sample forecasts. Our estimates suggest a fairly moderate response of supply to house price changes. A 10 percent rise in real house prices leads to an 0.8 percent increase in the housing stock, which is accomplished by a temporary 180 percent increase in the average number of quarterly starts, spread over four quarters.

JEL Classification: D2, R3

Suggested Citation

Mayer, Christopher J. and Somerville, C. Tsuriel, Unifying Empirical and Theoretical Models of Housing Supply (Undated). Sauder School of Business Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=9223

Christopher J. Mayer (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance ( email )

3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

C. Tsuriel Somerville

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Division of Strategy and Business Economics ( email )

2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
604-822-8341 (Phone)
604-822-8351 (Fax)

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