Publication: Introducing the Adequate Housing Index: A New Approach to Estimate the Adequate Housing Deficit within and across Emerging Economies
Loading...
Date
2021-11
ISSN
Published
2021-11
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper introduces a micro-founded methodological framework to estimate the housing deficit across and within emerging economies. It introduces the Adequate Housing Index, which provides a comparable assessment of adequate housing based on seven adequacy dimensions that are held constant across all countries. The adequacy dimensions were obtained and harmonized from countries’ most recent household expenditure and consumption surveys. The paper documents large differences in housing adequacy across a sample of 64 emerging economies, as well as wide within-country disparities such as across income groups, locations, and occupations. Estimates of the Adequate Housing Index show that across the sample of 64 emerging economies, there is a current housing deficit of 268 million housing units affecting 1.26 billion people. About 26 percent of the current housing stock in these economies is inadequate. The paper further estimates that at least 40 million additional housing units will have to be added by 2030 to provide adequate housing to all and accommodate the growing population and urbanization patterns.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Behr, Daniela M.; Chen, Lixue; Goel, Ankita; Haider, Khondoker Tanveer; Singh, Sandeep; Zaman, Asad. 2021. Introducing the Adequate Housing Index: A New Approach to Estimate the Adequate Housing Deficit within and across Emerging Economies. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9830. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36481 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Geopolitics and the World Trading System(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-23)Until the beginning of this century, the GATT/WTO system worked. Economic research provided a compelling explanation. It showed that if governments maximize the well-being of their own countries broadly defined, GATT/WTO principles would facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation over their trade policy choices. Now heightened geopolitical rivalry seems to have undermined the WTO. A simple transposition of the previous rationalization suggests that geopolitics and trade cooperation are not compatible. The paper shows that this is only true if rivalry eclipses any consideration of own-country well-being. In all other circumstances, there are gains from trade cooperation even with geopolitics. Furthermore, the WTO’s relevance is in question only if it adheres too rigidly to its existing rules and norms. Through measured adaptation to the geopolitical imperative, the WTO can continue to thrive as a forum for multilateral trade cooperation in the age of geopolitics.Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.Publication Global Poverty Revisited Using 2021 PPPs and New Data on Consumption(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-05)Recent improvements in survey methodologies have increased measured consumption in many low- and lower-middle-income countries that now collect a more comprehensive measure of household consumption. Faced with such methodological changes, countries have frequently revised upward their national poverty lines to make them appropriate for the new measures of consumption. This in turn affects the World Bank’s global poverty lines when they are periodically revised. The international poverty line, which is based on the typical poverty line in low-income countries, increases by around 40 percent to $3.00 when the more recent national poverty lines as well as the 2021 purchasing power parities are incorporated. The net impact of the changes in international prices, the poverty line, and new survey data (including new data for India) is an increase in global extreme poverty by some 125 million people in 2022, and a significant shift of poverty away from South Asia and toward Sub-Saharan Africa. The changes at higher poverty lines, which are more relevant to middle-income countries, are mixed.Publication From Patriarchy to Policy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Legal institutions play an important role in shaping gender equality in economic domains, from inheritance to labor markets. But where do gender equal laws come from? Using cross-country data on social norms and legal equality, this paper investigates the socio-cultural roots of gender inequity in the legal system and its implications for female labor force participation. To identify the impact of social norms, the analysis uses an empirical strategy that exploits pre-modern differences in ancestral patriarchal culture as an instrument for present-day gender norms. The findings show that ancestral patriarchal culture is a strong predictor of contemporary norms, and conservative social norms are associated with more gender inequality in the de jure legal framework, the de facto implementation of laws, and the labor market. The paper presents evidence for a political selection mechanism linking norms to laws: countries with more conservative norms elect political leaders who are more hostile to gender equality, who then pass less progressive legislation. The results highlight the cultural roots and political drivers of legalized gender inequality.Publication Global Socio-economic Resilience to Natural Disasters(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-22)Most disaster risk assessments use damages to physical assets as their central metric, often neglecting distributional impacts and the coping and recovery capacity of affected people. To address this shortcoming, the concepts of well-being losses and socio-economic resilience—the ability to experience asset losses without a decline in well-being—have been proposed. This paper uses microsimulations to produce a global estimate of well-being losses from, and socio-economic resilience to, natural disasters, covering 132 countries. On average, each $1 in disaster-related asset losses results in well-being losses equivalent to a $2 uniform national drop in consumption, with significant variation within and across countries. The poorest income quintile within each country incurs only 9% of national asset losses but accounts for 33% of well-being losses. Compared to high-income countries, low-income countries experience 67% greater well-being losses per dollar of asset losses and require 56% more time to recover. Socio-economic resilience is uncorrelated with exposure or vulnerability to natural hazards. However, a 10 percent increase in GDP per capita is associated with a 0.9 percentage point gain in resilience, but this benefit arises indirectly—such as through higher rate of formal employment, better financial inclusion, and broader social protection coverage—rather than from higher income itself. This paper assess ten policy options and finds that socio-economic and financial interventions (such as insurance and social protection) can effectively complement asset-focused measures (e.g., construction standards) and that interventions targeting low-income populations usually have higher returns in terms of avoided well-being losses per dollar invested.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Estimating House Prices in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-02)Despite the relevance of house prices for a variety of stakeholders as well as for macroeconomic and monetary policy making, reliable, publicly available house price data are largely absent in emerging markets and developing economies. Filling this void, this paper presents a systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, and assessing private property prices in emerging markets and developing economies. The paper uses data scraped from five countries’ largest real estate websites where private properties are listed for sale, to obtain price data and property attributes to establish a comprehensive data set that allows for both intra- and inter-country comparison of residential property prices. It then outlines the usability of these data by employing random forest estimation to predict the price of a standard housing unit—the basic house price—that is comparable across countries. While this approach is also applicable to filling wide data gaps in the provision of private property prices in developed economies, the paper focuses on how this approach can be applied to emerging markets and developing economies, where private property price data are particularly scarce.Publication Low-income Housing in Latin America and the Caribbean(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-01)Housing is one of the most important sectors of the economy -- in developing countries as in richer ones -- with large positive externalities in terms of economic growth, public health and societal stability. It is the primary form of asset accumulation for the poor -- often representing more than 50 percent of the assets of households. However, housing systems in developing countries are dominated by badly designed, poorly targeted, and inefficient government subsidies, market failures in land markets, overwhelming informality, a predominance of powerful vested interests and a growing slum population. This paper addresses the following headings: the housing sector in Latin American countries (LAC); the World Bank Group housing strategy in LAC; and the challenges ahead.Publication Rental Housing : Lessons from International Experience and Policies for Emerging Markets(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-03-22)This book rental housing lessons from international experience and policies for emerging market is an effort to bring rental housing to the forefront of the housing agenda of countries around the world and to provide general guidance for policy makers whose actions can have an effect on where and how people live. It warns of the challenges they face and provides guidelines on how to develop or redevelop a sound rental sector. it can enable key players in housing markets be they government officials, private rental property owners, financiers, or nongovernmental organizations to add rental housing as a critical housing option and to have an informed discussion on how best to stimulate this sector. The housing policy of most nations focused on increasing home ownership. There had been very little discussion about rental housing, less about social housing, and virtually none about public housing. This book includes totally five chapters: chapter one is introduction; chapter two is the rental market and its players; chapter three is legal, tax, and financial issues; chapter four is recommendations and conclusion; chapter five is country experiences.Publication Europe and Central Asia Housing Finance Crisis Prevention and Resolution : A Review of Policy Options(Washington, DC, 2013-03)The objective of this paper, besides offering insight in the regional and global development and stability issues, is to initiate a dialog with housing finance market stakeholders on the course of action appropriate for their jurisdictions. The policy options presented in the paper are practical and implementable and should frame discussions between public and private housing finance market participants. It offers observations of the recent Europe and Central Asia (ECA) market developments and presents a menu of policy actions that should be considered by the mortgage regulators to address the current challenges and to better prepare for next cyclical events. The scope of the paper is on the mortgage finance in ECA region. Some of the policy measures discussed deal with the real estate market evolution- notably the market observatories- as the real estate market evolutions are intricately linked with the cyclicality of the mortgage credit (and with the broad business cycles) and this linkage should be analyzed and considered by the mortgage market stakeholders. The policy options discussed in this paper are: (a) interconnected; and (b) need to be tailored to the specific country circumstances. The paper is structured as follows: after an overview of ECA mortgage market characteristics, key elements of the post-2008 performance are discussed in details- Non-Performing Loan (NPL) and funding mechanisms evolution. A number of policy options that can be utilized in a crisis management and counter-cyclical context are suggested.Publication Governments that Achieve Results : Introducing Performance Mechanisms and Exploring the Trust Dimension(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-10)Over the past few decades, a significant number of advanced countries and, more recently, some developing countries have moved the focus of their budget arrangements to emphasize performance. The recently published book results, performance budgeting and trust in Government follows from a conference on performance budgeting held in Mexico in June 2008 where a large range of experiences from Latin America and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries was presented. Its intention is to provide readers and governments wishing to improve elements of their performance budgeting with an understanding of the many elements involved in implementing these reforms, particularly in performance-informed budgeting (PIB), focusing on the challenges and the variety of approaches taken to meet these challenges. In many OECD and middle income countries, performance budgeting has been associated with the use of modern techniques of public management that emphasize individual and organizational responsibility and accountability for results. The books starts by providing an overview of PIB, building on two decades of experience and lesson learning, and sets out the key themes that provide the basis for discussions in the subsequent chapters. It looks at the roles of key decision-makers and institutions in creating a network of structured performance agreements4 throughout the budget cycle.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2019(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019)Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.Publication Supporting Youth at Risk(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008)The World Bank has produced this policy Toolkit in response to a growing demand from our government clients and partners for advice on how to create and implement effective policies for at-risk youth. The author has highlighted 22 policies (six core policies, nine promising policies, and seven general policies) that have been effective in addressing the following five key risk areas for young people around the world: (i) youth unemployment, underemployment, and lack of formal sector employment; (ii) early school leaving; (iii) risky sexual behavior leading to early childbearing and HIV/AIDS; (iv) crime and violence; and (v) substance abuse. The objective of this Toolkit is to serve as a practical guide for policy makers in middle-income countries as well as professionals working within the area of youth development on how to develop and implement an effective policy portfolio to foster healthy and positive youth development.Publication Zimbabwe(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03-01)This report presents an assessment of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector disaster risk and management capacity. The findings indicate that Zimbabwe is highly exposed to agricultural risks and has limited capacity to manage risk at various levels. The report shows that disaster-related shocks along Zimbabwe’s agricultural supply chains directly translate to volatility in agricultural GDP. Such shocks have a substantial impact on economic growth, food security, and fiscal balance. When catastrophic disasters occur, the economy absorbs the shocks, without benefiting from any instruments that transfer the risk to markets and coping ability. The increasing prevalence of ‘shock recovery-shock’ cycles impairs Zimbabwe’s ability to plan and pursue a sustainable development path. The findings presented here confirm that it is highly pertinent for Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity to manage risk at various levels, from the smallholder farmer, to other participants along the supply chain, to consumers (who require a reliable, safe food supply), and ultimately to the government to manage natural disasters. The assessment provides the following evidence on sources of risks and plausible risk management solutions. It is our hope that the report contributes to action by the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt a proactive and integrated risk management strategy appropriate to the current structure of the agricultural sector.Publication Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.Publication The Power of Survey Design : A User's Guide for Managing Surveys, Interpreting Results, and Influencing Respondents(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The vast majority of data used for economic research, analysis, and policy design comes from surveys-surveys of households, firms, schools, hospitals, and market participants, and, the accuracy of the estimate will depend on how well the survey is done. This innovative book is both a 'how-to' go about carrying out high-quality surveys, especially in the challenging environment of developing countries, and a 'user's guide' for anyone who uses statistical data. Reading this book will provide data users with a wealth of insight into what kinds of problems, or biases to look for in different data sources, based on the underlying survey approaches that were used to generate the data. In that sense the book is an invaluable 'skeptics guide to data'. Yet, the broad storyline of the book is something that should be absorbed by statistical data users. The book will teach and show how difficult it often is to obtain reliable estimates of important social and economic facts, and, therefore encourages you to approach all estimates with sensible caution.