Homeownership and Development

Dear Colleagues,

The relationship between homeownership and unemployment has been a subject of debate for a long time. According to some authors, indeed, homeownership has a negative effect on employment, while according to other authors, homeownership has a positive effect on employment. However, the literature on housing tenure and labour market outcomes has largely ignored the social implications of a potential bidirectional relation between homeownership and (better) labour market outcomes, namely, the increase in socioeconomic inequalities of a society. Indeed, if homeownership can be, by itself, a condition for receiving higher wages, homeownership would be the starting point of a “lucky” circle that increases the well-being of people who are already wealthy.

Furthermore, the link between homeownership and entrepreneurship has been scarcely investigated, both theoretically and empirically, as compared to the link between homeownership and (un)employment. This is an important shortcoming in the related literature since entrepreneurship and new businesses are usually associated with innovation and regional development.

Finally, the social housing analysis is almost completely missing in the literature on housing tenure and labour market outcomes. Labour market policies are, indeed, essential for satisfying the housing need. The housing need, namely, owning a home to live in, represents one of the primary needs of people. Therefore, regional development also depends on the share of people they can satisfy the housing need.

Therefore, the topics of interest of this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Theoretical and empirical works clarifying the relation between homeownership and wealth.
• Theoretical and empirical works clarifying the interplay between homeownership, entrepreneurship and new businesses.
• Policy papers suggesting economic and social policies for increases both the “actual” and the “realised” housing demand, thus increasing the housing need satisfaction.

Dr. Gaetano Lisi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Real Estate is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• homeownership and wealth
• homeownership and entrepreneurship
• homeonwership and (un)employment
• homeownership and wages
• homeownership and mortgage markets
• homeownership and financial markets
• homeownership and housing prices
• homeownership and housing need
• homeownership and labour market policies
• homeownership and social and housing policies