Reflections on the nature and policy implications of planning restrictions on housing supply. Discussion of 'Planning policy, planning practice, and housing supply' by Kate Barker
讨论英国规划体系如何通过限制土地供给间接影响住房供给，指出其对住房市场的影响可能比巴克报告所承认的更严重，对政策制定者和城市经济学家有参考价值。
Planning is about other things as well but it is fundamentally an economic activity. It allocates a scarce resource but independently of prices or any market information. In analysing the effects this allocative mechanism has on housing supply (or, indeed, the supply of buildings for any given use) we need to think carefully about what exactly it is that planning allocates and whether, in its operation, it creates a constraint on the supply of what it is allocating. In the British case, our planning system does not operate on the supply of housing directly but indirectly via the constraint imposed on land supply. Given the income elasticity of demand for space this has policy implications perhaps even more serious than is acknowledged by Barker. Kate Barker in her, now, four reports (Barker, 2003 These reports brought a sharp economic policy focus to a previously almost wholly neglected issue but an issue of real importance. In addition they brought together a huge and valuable body of analysis and evidence. They are a resource for both policy makers and urban economists, not just in the U.K. but in the world at large. I have already cited them widely in policy analysis for China.