Housing Policy Impacts on Poverty and Inequality in Europe
研究了欧洲27国住房补贴与社会住房对贫困和不平等的效果，发现现金补贴比实物补贴更划算，芬兰等北欧国家用较少支出实现显著减贫。
ABSTRACT Developed countries have addressed the challenge of improving low‐income households' housing conditions through housing allowances and social housing. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of these policies—individually and in combination—by comparing them to a counterfactual scenario without housing support. We examine 27 European countries using harmonized data from the EU‐SILC dataset. We find that (1) cash housing benefits (housing allowances) are more cost‐effective than in‐kind housing benefits (social housing), and more effective at reducing poverty than inequality. This result holds even when accounting for a partial capture of cash housing benefits by landlords, as documented in several studies. (2) Some Nordic and Western countries—especially Finland—achieve an impressive reduction in both inequality and poverty (one‐third) while spending as much as France and the UK. By contrast, France's mixed approach, combining both policies, appears to be the least cost‐effective.