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THE USE AND ABUSE OF MARKETS IN HOUSING POLICY
Author(s) -
King Peter
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2009.01979.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , rhetoric , competition (biology) , work (physics) , control (management) , public housing , public policy , economics , public economics , market economy , business , law and economics , economic growth , management , philosophy , linguistics , engineering , biology , mechanical engineering , ecology
This paper argues that, despite its rhetoric in support of markets, government does not understand how markets work, but is rather trying to use certain aspects of markets to control social housing. The paper looks at three areas: first, the idea of private finance and how this is used by government as a form of public policy; second, the notion of risk and whether it actually occurs in social housing; and third, the contention that government is incapable of appreciating the manner in which markets operate because it only wishes to provide safe options and so cannot countenance real choice and competition.