This collection deals with some interesting economic questions related to construction and real estate, namely how construction firms cope with the volatility of construction; whether speculative bubbles or market fundamentals drive those fluctuations; new techniques to predict construction demand; why the office market led the recent real estate cycle; and whether regulation is responsible for speculative behaviour.

Autorentext

PETER ANTONIONI Business School, University College, London MICHAEL BALL Director, Urban and Property Economics Consultancy, London FRANCIS CALCOEN CNRS Research Director, Catholic University of Lille, France DIDIER CORNUEL Professor of Economics, University of Lille, France ALASTAIR MCFARLANE Senior Economist, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA GEORGE OFORI Professor and Head, Department of Building, National University of Singapore GERBERT ROMIJN Researcher in Public Finance, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, The Hague, Netherlands FREDDIE TAN Adjunct Senior Researcher, Department of Building, National University of Singapore

Zusammenfassung
Besides being a major constituent of the industrialised economies, many aspects of the construction sector such as its heterogeneity, high volatility, low productivity gains and tendency to generate bubbles make it a particularly fertile field of analysis by modern economic tools. This collection deals with some interesting economic questions related to construction and real estate, namely how construction firms cope with the volatility of construction; whether speculative bubbles or market fundamentals drive those fluctuations; new techniques to predict construction demand; why the office market led the recent real estate cycle; and whether regulation is responsible for speculative behaviour.

Inhalt

Introduction; P.Thalmann & M.Zarin-Nejadan Diversification as a Strategy for Minimising Fluctuations in Construction Firm Turnovers; M.Ball & P.Antonioni The 1985-95 Cycle in Real Estate Markets: Bubble or Shock; D.Cornuel & F.Calcoen Estimating Construction Demand in Singapore: Potential of Neural Networks; F.Tan & G.Ofori Lump-sum Moving Cost; G.Romijn Rent Growth Control and the Transition of Land to Urban Use; A.McFarlane