In this paper, we examine beta-convergence of real per-capita income of Chinese counties. We account for both the spatial dependences between counties and the possibility of different convergence regimes. The first feature is captured by the spatial error term, whereas the second one is modeled...

In this paper, we propose an indicator of the homeownership rate based on Internet ads offering the housing for rent and sale. We constructed the HOR estimate using the number of ads in four different markets (flats for rent, flats for sale, houses for rent, and houses for sale). Our HOR...

We suggest to use Internet car sale price advertisements for measuring economic inequality between and within German regions. Our estimates of regional income levels and Gini indices based on advertisements are highly, positively correlated with the official figures. This implies that the...

Housing rents in Germany have been rising for several years. Especially in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich, the increases have recently been higher than the German average growth rate of rents that makes up roughly two percent. The German government would like to respond to this...

When speculative price bubbles on real estate markets burst, the results are often distortions in the real economy, associated with substantial losses in production and employment. This paper discusses the degree to which institutional frameworks can prevent speculative bubbles from forming and...

The prices and rents for flats in the most large German cities have been markedly grown in the last few years. This tendency will continue through 2013, too. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt am Main are leading in terms of growth of the home prices and rents. In these cities, the prices...

Untersuchungen über die Preise auf dem Markt für Wohnimmobilien geben in aller Regel Aufschluss über die Preise für Wohnungen in einer bestimmten Lage oder mit einer bestimmten Beschaffenheit. Das DIW Berlin hat ein Verfahren entwickelt, mit dem die Preise für verschiedenartige Wohnungen zu...

Since 2010, housing prices in Germany have been growing on average by 6 percent a year. During the same period, the rents have been increasing by 4 percent, which is significantly slower than the housing prices, but substantially faster than the consumer prices. This is one of the results of the...

The construction or expansion of an airport leads to a significant increase in aircraft noise in the surrounding area, which, in turn, results in a marked reduction in the prices of houses or apartments located under the planned flight paths. Even expectations about future noise pollution can...

In this paper, we evaluate the forecasting ability of 115 indicators to predict the housing prices and rents in 71 German cities. Above all, we are interested in whether the local business confidence indicators can allow substantially improving the forecasts, given the local nature of the...