Research team
Expertise
My research interests are in the broad area of Real Estate Economics and Finance. A common theme in my research is that I evaluate how housing policies affect households and housing market outcomes. In addition, I study price formation in the housing market.
Housing market responses to mandatory flood risk disclosure.
Abstract
Flooding is one of the most common, widespread and destructive natural disasters and is expected to become more important in the future. To optimally design policies to reduce the negative welfare effects of such environmental disasters, it is crucial to understand how households react to flood events and value flood risk. The goal of this research is to study how mandatory information disclosure on flood risk may affect housing market outcomes and household behavior. Therefore, we contribute to the existing literature as we are able to exploit law changes in Flanders that impose mandatory information disclosure of flood risk in real estate listings since 2013. We use rich micro-data on the universe of house sales, rental contracts, building permits, flood risk maps and flood events. The policy changes and rich micro-data allow us to provide a credible causal estimate of housing market responses to the introduction of mandatory disclosure of flood risks.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Damen Sven
- Fellow: Sun Xianglin
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The effect of energy performance certificates on real estate prices, investments in energy efficiency and energy consumption.
Abstract
Mandatory energy performance certification for buildings is increasingly used in many countries. Energy performance certificates (EPCs) are seen as a key instrument to increase awareness of energy efficiency, which may affect real estate prices, investments in energy efficiency and ultimately energy consumption. Despite the widespread use and substantial administrative costs to implement, empirical evidence on whether or not mandatory certification reduces energy consumption is nonexistent. Empirical evidence for real estate prices and investments in energy efficiency is scarce and inconclusive. We exploit the introduction of mandatory EPCs in Flanders in November 2008 in combination with rich micro data in a regression discontinuity design. Therefore, we are able to provide a credible-identified estimate of the causal effect of the introduction of mandatory EPCs on energy consumption, house prices and investments in energy efficiency.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Damen Sven
- Fellow: van Kempen Tijmen
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Construction of a dataset with rental contracts and energy performance certificates
Abstract
The goal of this research project is to construct a new database of rental contracts and energy efficiency. Therefore, we use rental contracts from the Flemish professional association of real estate brokers (CIB Vlaanderen) and energy performance certificates from the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA).Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Damen Sven
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project