Supply starts when speculation ends: Searching for a theory of housing production

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a coherent way of understanding the economics of housing supply?You might be surprised, given the confidence of the prognostications of public commentators, that most don’t have a broadly accepted economic theory of why homes are built. It’s all ad hoc and often contradictory.Here, Tim Helm walks through the main empirical patterns that need to be explained by our economic theory of housing supply, and steps through why most current approaches are a poor fit. A good written explanation is here. Thanks for listening. As always, please like, share, comment, and subscribe. Thanks for your support. You can find Fresh Economic Thinking on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.Theme: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music—Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 4.0Interested in learning more? Fresh Economic Thinking runs in-person and online workshops to help your organisation dig into the economic issues you face and learn powerful insights.Fresh Economic Thinking is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com/subscribe