Alberto Dalmazzo
DEPS, USiena
Guido de Blasio
Bank of Italy, Structural Economic Analysis Directorate, Roma
Samuele Poy
University of Piemonte Orientale, Dept. of Economics and Business Studies
Abstract
We model the impact of public housing supply on local development by using a spatial equilibrium model with a “share-altering” technological shift from agriculture to manufacturing. The model shows that a larger local availability of houses triggers greater population growth and, consequently, industrialization. It also suggests that these effects are stronger in places that exhibited, prior to the public housing plan, relatively higher population density. These implications are broadly confirmed by an empirical evaluation of the INA-Casa plan, a program implemented by the Italian government in the aftermath of WWII.
Keywords
Housing policy, urbanization, industrialization
Jel Codes
O14, R11.
