For many years countries have taken advantage of one another's experiences in formulating social policies and even in designing specific interventions. Often such transfers have occurred on a fairly casual level; sometimes greater rigor has been present. In either case, the goal has been to learn from previous experience-at least to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. In light of the promise that such intercountry transfers hold, it is somewhat surprising that so little energy has gone into careful analytic work on the behavior of households in differing countries and how they respond to various changes, especially those resulting from shifts in public policy. This lack of careful analysis was a major force that motivated The Urban Institute to establish an international studies program in 1982. This volume represents one of the early products of the collaborative efforts that this initiative has spawned. The results of the comparison of the housing markets in West Germany and the United States presented here offer examples of the type of unexpected conclusions that may emerge from careful analyses as well as more anticipated outcomes. Despite the many similarities in the economies of the United States and West Germany and the general free-market orientation of their housing sectors, the papers in this volume document important differences in the way households make decisions about their housing and the consequences of these decisions.

Real estate is the biggest real asset class in an economy, and Germany is the biggest economy in Europe. This implies opportunities as well as specific risks for investors and policy makers. As the German real estate markets have by and large been spared severe disruptions in the course of the economic crisis, many questions arise for investors and academics alike. What are the key institutional characteristics of the German real estate markets that make it different? What are the short and long-term drivers of demand and supply? Which regional and functional market segments are most likely to outperform in the next few years? What are the most important pitfalls for investors in Germany? This book gives answers to these and many more questions. The editors have invited a broad range of extensively knowledgeable practitioners and academics from across the relevant real estate spectrum, i.e. economic, legal, tax, planning and financing issues, to express their views. There is no better English publication that gives such a profound and simultaneously entertaining overview of Germany’s real estate markets.

The Economics of Aging presents results from an ongoing National Bureau of Economic Research project. Contributors consider the housing mobility and living arrangements of the elderly, their labor force participation and retirement, the economics of their health care, and their financial status. The goal of the research is to further our understanding both of the factors that determine the well-being of the elderly and of the consequences that follow from an increasingly older population with longer individual life spans. Each paper is accompanied by critical commentary.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.