Capital's Metropolis: Chicago and the Transformation of American Housing Policy

The US economic recovery of the 1990s accelerated amidst privatization, selective devolution and the reinvention of the public sector itself. Simultaneously, mortgage finance and assisted housing policy were recast in terms of market processes, individual responsibility and private home-ownership, even as gentrification enjoyed a dramatic resurgence. The intersection of these seemingly unrelated processes signifies an important transformation of the American inner city. Nowhere are these connections more explicit than in Chicago, where newly devolved and flexible policy infrastructures are built on the ashes of prominent experiments of previous generations. In this paper we use Chicago as a context to explore the linkages between reinvestment, housing finance and the reinvention of assisted housing. We analyse local and federal developments in assisted housing policy and develop a multivariate analysis of mortgage loans in Chicago's neighbourhoods during the 1990s expansion. New constructions of scale in assisted housing, exemplifed by Chicago's Lake Parc Place and the federal HOPE VI programme, constitute a centripetal devolution mediated by the relationship between public policy and local private market forces. National changes in housing finance have altered historical processes of redlining, disinvestment, and gentrification. Mortgage capital, traditionally responsible for the creation or exacerbation of rent gaps, now lubricates the flow of capital into the gentrifying frontier of the inner city. The intensified market discipline of housing policy, based partly on theories incubated in Chicago, suggests a new regime of neighbourhood change in the American inner city.     

Innovation and the Entrepreneurial State in Asia: Mechanisms of Bond Market Development

Abstract

Bond markets have expanded rapidly in emerging East Asian economies in recent years. Asian policymakers have played a pivotal role in this development. This process presents an interesting challenge to the developmental state literature associated with bank-based financial systems. We argue that it is best to understand the role of the state as an entrepreneurial state in the construction of these markets, focusing on institutional innovation in three mechanisms of state-led market infrastructure: national or local credit rating agencies, mortgage corporations and bond pricing agencies. National credit rating agencies rate the creditworthiness of debt in local currency. Mortgage corporations create markets in securitised housing loans. Bond pricing agencies put a value on illiquid debt instruments to enable mark-to-market portfolio management. Together, these three mechanisms constitute the core determinants of the market (demand for creditworthy products, supply of tradeable assets, and the fixing of a price to those assets). In so doing they influence the nature of market operations, producing outcomes very different from the free market ideal type. We also consider cross-country commonalities and variations in this general pattern.     

日本信贷宽松货币政策及其有效性

本文以日本银行在2010年10月到2013年4月间所实施的货币政策作为研究对象,通过考察日本银行的资产负债表规模以及结构的变动,认为上述期间日本银行所实施的货币政策属于非传统货币政策中的信贷宽松货币政策。之后再基于事件研究法,通过考察日本银行货币政策公告以及相关的资产价格变动,定量地分析了日本银行所实施的信贷宽松货币政策对于国债市场产生了较为有效的刺激作用,而对股票市场和外汇市场作用不明显。     

From 'black‐balling' to 'marking': the suburban origin of redlining in Canada, 1930s–1950s

Redlining occurs where institutional mortgage lending is the norm and where lenders decline to loan in specific areas. The term originated during the 1930s in the United States, where it was promoted by federal agencies and acquired racial connotations. Recently, redlining has been uncommon in Canada, but contemporary reports, archival records and parliamentary debates show it was widespread from the 1930s to the 1950s. Contemporaries distinguished the 'black‐balling' of remote areas, where it was impossible to make loans, from the 'marking' of districts in urban areas where companies could lend but chose not to do so. Only the latter can be regarded as redlining. As defined by Canadian housing agencies, most 'marked' areas were in unregulated, owner‐built suburbs that lacked services. The suburban origin of redlining in Canada had little to do with the distribution of ethnic minorities. As long as it lasted, roughly until the late 1950s, it perpetuated social class diversity in Canadian suburbs.     

HOUSING: FROM NIGHT WATCHMAN STATE TO WELFARE STATE

This paper illustrates and evaluates some of the features of the Danish and European research of the history of housing policy and relates these to the main results and perspectives in the author's doctoral thesis ‘Housing: From Night Watchman State to Welfare State – Construction and Housing Policy in three Danish Towns, 1850–1930’, 2006. The paper argues that the roots of the welfare state's housing policy are to be found in the far more prominent part which the public sector got to play in the Danish society as a result of the crises following World War I and the conjunctural repercussions throughout the 1920s.     

Sir Otto Niemeyer,the bankrupt state and the federal system

One of the main myths about Australian political and economic history relates to the intervention in economic policy making in the 1930s by the Bank of England through the mission of Sir Otto Niemeyer. This article argues that Niemeyer's advice was not heeded. Rather, parallels between what he demanded and the Premiers’ Plan were largely confined to the level of rhetoric as part of a strategy to regain access to the London capital market. State expenditures were reduced gradually according to local political calculations and fiscal priorities, and not in step with the timetable set by the Bank of England. Far from weakening and dividing the Australian state, the federal separation of powers led to the gradual introduction of fiscal austerity, as state governments had little option but to maintain their role in complementing capital accumulation and facilitating social legitimation.     

Subprime Housing Goes South: Constructing Securitized Mortgages for the Poor in Mexico

Mexico represents the largest market for residential mortgage‐backed securitization (RMBS) in Latin America. Despite its significance to questions of development, there has been no critical analysis on the social implications and power dimensions of RMBS with regard to low‐income housing in Mexico. This essay fills this gap by demystifying the technical and thus apolitical nature of RMBS as well as by explaining how and why state‐sponsored securitization schemes subsidize financial and construction interests in the name of expanding home ownership for the poor. In so doing, the analysis employs a historical materialist approach that, first, places RMBS within the contradictory nature of capital accumulation processes in Mexico and relations of class‐based power therein, and second, views RMBS as an integral feature of housing policy that is inextricably linked to the nerve centre of capital accumulation, namely: the credit system.     

Taking the Local: The Reagan Administration, New Federalism, and Fair Housing Implementation

This article explores how "New Federalism" under President Ronald W. Reagan manifested itself in the implementation of fair housing policy. We examine the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) and how it led to state and local civil rights agencies playing an increasingly vital role in implementing the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Relying on data provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we show that a significant number of fair housing complaints were shifted from HUD to state and local agencies.     

Amenities,affordability, and housing vouchers

Against the background of an emerging rental affordability crisis, we examine how the standard rule that households should not spend more than 30% of their income on housing expenditures leads to inefficiencies in the context of federal low‐income housing policy. We quantify how the current practice of locally indexing individual rent subsidies in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program regardless of quality‐of‐life conditions implicitly incentivizes recipients to live in high‐amenity areas. We also assess a novel scenario for housing policy reform that adjusts subsidies by the amenity expenditures of low‐income households, permitting national HCV program coverage to increase.     

Quelling inflation: The role of the public

Members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England seek to subdue inflation using ‘monetary policy’ to regulate the availability of money and credit to the financial system. The central bank ‘policy rate’ is the blunt instrument conventionally employed to affect the pacing of economic activity, stimulating or retarding growth. Credibly explaining that the rise in interest rates – the ‘tightening’ of monetary policy – underway at the moment will continue suppressing demand for goods and services until an inflation target of around 2 per cent is achieved is the emphatic message the bank seeks to convey. Such intentionally destructive and potentially brutal interventions are the critical aim of current bank policy. This article demonstrates how the design of the contemporary monetary regime, which presents itself unequivocally as the outcome of macroeconomic developments, can be recast in anthropological terms, thus revealing the role of the public in the unfolding monetary drama.     

EDITORS' FOREWORD

Canadian federal energy policy since the early 1970s has run counter to the interests of the producing provinces. Federal policy has always been predicated upon two points: sufficient domestic supply and acceptable domestic prices. Until the early 1970s, federal policy had been complementary to that of both the producer and consumer provinces. Natural gas shortages in 1970 and 1971, the OPEC embargo, and the quadrupling of prices radically changed federal policy. Exports were no longer promoted, and the federal government undertook to protect Canada from the inflationary pressures of rising world energy costs. These policies have run counter to those of the energy producing provinces, particularly to those of Alberta.

While it would appear that producer-provinces would have sufficient leverage to insist upon their interests, the federal government has made good use of its direct and indirect powers to set the agenda. This suggests that the Trudeau government has begun a recentralization of federal prerogative in an area historically the preserve of the provinces. Because the government has largely been successful, a difference between federal governments and supranational organizations is suggested. In supranational organizations the power to veto is vested in the governments of the states-members; in an integrated federal state, that power resides in the central government.     

The Pursuit of Coordination: The Organizational Dimension in the Response to Homelessness

The pursuit of "coordination" has been a prominent theme both in local responses to homelessness and in the current incentives in federal housing policy. This article reviews some of the conditions that make coordination important yet difficult to achieve in the homeless area. A variety of approaches for achieving coordination at the local level are reviewed, ranging from point-of-service coordination to system-design. The local examples are drawn from the cities participating in the evaluation of The Robert Wood Johnson and the Department of Housing and Urban Development Homeless Families Program. The questions of effectiveness and future prospects for homeless service coordination are raised.     

Consensus and conflict among Australia's leaders∗

This paper reports and analyses survey data on the opinions of 353 top position‐holders in business, trade unions, federal and state politics, the Commonwealth Public Service, mass media, national voluntary associations, and major universities and research institutes during the latter half of 1975. Patterns of elite responses to 15 issue sets aggregating 46 separate opinion items are examined. The main focus is on the extent and configuration of elite conflict and consensus over economic policy, foreign and defence policy, industrial relations, social issues, and institutional structure. In general, substantial conflict between left‐of‐centre and right‐of‐centre elites in all major issue areas, save possibly that of social issues, is found. However, the extent of this conflict varies as between specific policies, over which it is relatively small, and the legitimacy or desirability of various group actions and major policy innovations, over which it is quite large. Whether conflict during 1975 was sufficiently great to threaten the fundamental unity of Australian elites is discussed.     

Defiant Innovation: The Adoption of Medical Marijuana Laws in the American States

Diffusion research often characterizes the role of the federal government in innovation adoption as a supportive one, either increasing the likelihood of adoption or its speed. We examine the adoption of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) from 1996 to 2014 to shed light on what motivates states to adopt innovations that are in explicit defiance of federal law. Furthermore, we examine whether federal signals have any influence on the likelihood of adoption. In doing so, we utilize implementation theory to expand our understanding of how the federal government's position impacts state policy innovation adoption. We find mixed evidence for the influence of federal signals on the adoption of MMLs. The results suggest that medical marijuana policies are much more likely to be adopted in states when proponents have the political or institutional capital, rather than a medical or fiscal need. Moreover, this political capital is sufficient independent of the federal government's real or perceived position.     

Privatizing the Crown: The Exceptional Fate of Alberta's Liquor Control Board

A dramatic policy shift provides a means for understanding decision-making in governments. The privatization of the Alberta Liquor Control Board (ALCB) in 1993 is an example of a radical governance reform whereby most of a policy sector was turned from a state bureaucracy to a marketplace of private firms. This article examines the decision of Ralph Klein's government to privatize the ALCB and the central roles that history, institutional configurations, and path dependencies, among other factors, played in shaping its policy decisions. Of all the provinces, only Alberta has fully privatized its liquor board. The rest of the provinces, to varying degrees, have both retained and reformed their publicly owned and operated liquor boards, the largest of which is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). The unique policy outcome in Alberta was primarily a result of province-specific, temporally significant institutional and political factors. Liquidating the ALCB and establishing a private market to sell alcohol were relatively easy policies for the Klein Tories to implement given the weakness of the affected stakeholders in the liquor distribution industry. The liquidation of the ALCB was intended to demonstrate to the public that the new Klein government was dedicated to reducing the size and scope of Alberta's provincial state.     

An Australian geography of unhealthy housing

Housing problems, such as affordability, poor quality of condition, or damp, are key determinants of health and wellbeing. Importantly, though, a growing body of research has shown that unhealthy housing is the combined result of multiple housing problems acting together. Although the spatial distribution of discrete housing problems is well established, little is known of Australia's geography of unhealthy housing. We have previously defined and validated an Australian Index of Housing Insults, which captures the multiple ways in which housing adversely influences individual health—including, but not limited to, people's tenure security, affordability, quality, and neighbourhood characteristics. Using the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) dataset, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, this paper describes Australia's geography of unhealthy housing. The analysis examines the prevalence, characteristics, and distribution of the population who are vulnerable to unhealthy housing. Our findings reveal both a worsening landscape of households at risk because of their accommodation and a changing pattern of unhealthy housing in Australia over time. The paper considers how these findings may impact future policy settings and the potential to improve the health of Australia's population through targeted housing interventions.     

The Campbell Committee and the origins of ‘deregulation’ in Australia

The 1981 Australian Financial System Inquiry, known as the Campbell Committee, is widely seen as the start of the reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Accounts of its origins have been dominated by a debate about which policy actor can take credit. This paper utilises cabinet and Reserve Bank archives to reassess the origins of the Campbell Committee. The inquiry had its origins in an earlier attempt by the Whitlam government to take federal control of the regulation for non-bank financial institutions and the building society crisis of the mid-1970s. In its response to these political and economic challenges we can identify the moment in which the Fraser cabinet turned towards market-based reform. The political decisions made in the context of crisis set the path for regulatory change in subsequent decades, particularly in the area of prudential regulation, where we have seen regulatory consolidation and expansion rather than ‘deregulation’.     

Russia's Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Insights into the Economy

A prominent British economist reviews the recent growth, partner-country composition, and sector composition of foreign direct investment in and out of Russia from a comparative international perspective, based on UNCTAD and Central Bank of Russia data as well as selected case studies. Two hypotheses are tested: that foreign policy significantly affects the host-country pattern of Russia's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and that domestic institutions significantly impact the host-country pattern of Russia's OFDI and the sectoral pattern of its inward foreign direct investment (IFDI). Quantitative evidence of foreign-policy influence could not be found, while domestic institutional influences do appear to be present, most notably in the form of system-escaping OFDI.     

Regional Forest Agreements: Resolving Resource Conflicts or Managing Resource Politics?

Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) are the latest institutional response to conflict over the allocation, use and management of forests in Australia. RFAs involve a process of resource assessment leading to a long-term agreement between federal and state governments. This paper examines the approach to assessment being used in RFAs with reference to the literature on the practice of resource and environmental assessment and the changing shape of intergovernmental relations in Australia. It concludes that RFAs have not succeeded in resolving conflict over forestry, as was intended, but have successfully managed forest politics, both between governments and in the broader policy community.     

The political anatomy of community health policy in Australia, 1972–1982

This article seeks to account for the survival of the 1973–1975 Labor government's new Community Health policy during the conservative coalition government (1975–1983) (which had managed to completely abolish Labor's national Medibank health insurance program). Through extensive interviews with 74 people who were directly involved in the policy process at national, state and local levels, as well as from other sources of information, inquiry is made into the issues and circumstances that were taken into account in the decisions that affected the course of policy from 1972–82. The important political and economic forces included party politics, federal‐state relations, the national economy, the direction of other fiscal and health policies, private and governmental interest groups, administrative nets, and the mass media. The not surprising conclusion is that changes in Community Health policy did not depend on its effectiveness but rather on the balance of political, economic and organizational power of interested groups at particular points in time. Policy‐relevant issues facing the 1983 Labor government are pointed out.