The Governance of Low-Income Housing

Abstract

This paper develops a theoretical framework for analyzing the governance of low-income housing in the city. We focus on the provision of local public goods as the central issue for the governance of low-income housing. Governmental intervention in various forms is discussed. Factors that affect the governance structure from the efficiency perspective and the equity perspective, respectively, are explored in our theoretical framework. We then apply it to the case of the Chinese city. In particular, we analyze the governance structures of several major types of low-income housing including public rental housing, affordable housing, private low-income housing, work unit compound and urban village.