Stop-go' policy and the restriction of postwar British house-building
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3394185 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter M Scott (International Business and Strategy Centre for International Business History Henley Business School University of Reading), Peter Scott (0000-0003-1230-9040, University of Reading), James T Walker (0000-0002-3477-0236, International Business and Strategy Centre for International Business History Henley Business School University of Reading) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 716-737 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ehr.12700 |
| OpenAlex | W2788978973 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 19 |
From the mid-1950s to the early 1980s the Treasury and the Bank of England successfully advocated a policy of restricting both private and public sector house-building, as a key but covert instrument of their wider 'stop-go' macroeconomic policy framework. While the intensity of restrictions varied over the economic cycle, private house-building was restricted (through limiting mortgage availability) for almost all this period. This was achieved by keeping building society interest rates low relative to other interest rates and thus starving the building society movement of mortgage funds. Mortgage restriction was never publicly discussed and sometimes operated alongside ambitious housing targets and well-publicized policy initiatives to boost housing demand. This article outlines the evolution of house-building restriction, together with its impacts on the housing sector and the wider economy. We review the evolution of the policy framework and its consequences, compare the level and stability of British house-building during this period-historically and relative to other countries-and undertake time-series econometric analysis of its impacts on both house-building and house prices. Finally, implications for debates regarding stop-go policy, Britain's housing problem, and the distributional consequences of government macroeconomic policy are discussed
Covert · Democracy · Economic growth · Economic policy · Economics · Government (linguistics) · House price · Limiting · Lower house · Monetary economics · Political science · Politics · Private sector · Treasury · Housing Market and Economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Political and Economic history of UK and US
The Decline of Sterling
Housing Policy and Economic Power
The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain 1945-1975. A Study of Corporate Power, and Professional Influence in the Welfare State
On the Economics of the Barker Review of Housing Supply
Spatial aggregation, spatial dependence and predictability in the UK housing market
Housing policy in Britain
Construction Elasticities and Land Availability
The Impact of Land Use Planning and Tax Subsidies on the Supply and Price of Housing in Britain
Steering the Economy
The impact of 'stop-go' demand management policy on Britain's consumer durables industries, 1952-65
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |