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Comments on: Housing and the value of individuality http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/ The Visible Hand in Economics Fri, 08 Feb 2019 06:20:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: John http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1134 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:54:48 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1134 Great site and useful content! Could you leave some opinion about my sites?
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]]> By: Matt Nolan http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1133 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:19:01 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1133 “many people don’t seem to mind having a house like the next door”

True – personally I wouldn’t care too much if my house looked the same as other peoples, of course I’m an economist not an individual 😉

]]> By: Richard http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1132 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:31 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1132 Dr fleetwood’s comments are a typical dressing up of elitist preferences as a mainstream reality. A bit like the anti-globalists saying most people prefer local products; locally roasted coffee and bacon cured at the local butcher rather than Lavassa and Kiwi bacon.

You don’t need to go to many subdivisions to see that many people don’t seem to mind having a house like the next door. Actually much of Mt Vic looks like a 1920s cookie cutter subdivision.

]]> By: Matt Nolan http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1131 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:11:45 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1131 “Of course – I can’t be sure of that as I remember such developments from back in the 1970s”

“I guess under some assumptions you could get a prisoners’ dilemma where everyone chooses the cardboard cutout but this is not the socially optimal outcome”

I think both of you guys have a point here – namely that the individual does not internalise the impact of their house choice on their neighbours.

If the developer builds the house before selling them, then I don’t think this matters, as the developer will have to take this into account when selling the houses.

However, if the developer builds the houses after selling them to a set of individuals, individuals who lack information on the choice of their neighbours (or namely the value of individuality that there neighbours will have), we may have a problem.

]]> By: Aaron Schiff http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1130 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:03:22 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1130 Maybe people feel depressed or bored about living in a suburb where every house is identical. But when each individual chooses the design of her house, she only takes account of her private benefits. I guess under some assumptions you could get a prisoners’ dilemma where everyone chooses the cardboard cutout but this is not the socially optimal outcome. Then the government’s proposal could reduce welfare because the current regime actually prevents the prisoners’ dilemma from occurring.

However this result depends on strong assumptions about people’s preferences. And Dr Fleetwood seems to be saying that people value individuality so much that it wouldn’t happen anyway. As you said it seems that at least one of his two hypotheses has got to be wrong.

]]> By: Draco TB http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/03/25/houses-and-the-value-of-individuality/#comment-1129 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:44:34 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/?p=303#comment-1129 Nope, I’d say that Dr Fleetwood’s theory is complete BS. From what I read in the newspaper it seems that builders will be able to get a consent for a house design and that design can then be used anywhere. This means that people can go to the builder and select from a list of pre-approved house plans or spend the extra cash and hire an architect. I’m fairly sure that any good builder or architect will build up a large stock of pre-approved plans which should bring down the cost even further.

As for suburbs made of all the same ‘cardboard cutouts’? Well, I’m sure the free-market will reward any developer who tried that with a large loss (Of course – I can’t be sure of that as I remember such developments from back in the 1970s).

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