This paper argues that homeowners, if sufficiently influential, may attempt to manipulate housing prices. The paper presents an instance of, and sets out the political economy behind, one particular homeowner-made housing price bubble (in East Germany). Yet ultimately the paper suggests that...

Subsidizing homeownership makes cities decentralize, so Muth (1967) suggested over half a century ago, and so Voith (1999) and Glaeser (2011) have argued more recently. This paper provides a first quasi-experimental test of "Muth's hypothesis". We analyze a homeownership subsidy's effects on...

Many countries subsidize homeownership, and Germany is no exception. However, for an interlude of 12 years Germany also paused its subsidy. Over these twelve years most of the country's 100 largest cities saw their central city population expand. We explore subsidy removal's role in center...