Homeownership Rate and Other House Price Determinants Impacts on New House Prices in Colombia

Homeownership remains a preferred form of tenancy in different parts of the world. The attractions of security, stability, investment potential and a sense of pride outweigh the fear of price instability. For this reason, the Colombian government has encouraged in recent years, various demand policies that have sought to promote the increase in the number of homeowners. However, these ideas could have a severe impact on prices in the real estate market. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the effect of homeownership rate on new house prices in an emerging country with low real estate ownership, credit restrictions and average per capita income. The study uses panel data model to examine the influence of housing tenancy and other variables on the variation of housing prices in Colombia. Data were obtained from various sources including the Central Bank of Colombia, Financial Superintendence of Colombia, and National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia. The results show that homeownership rates have a positive effect on the price of new homes, which supports the hypothesis of the research. The population growth of the cities is the factor that is most relevant when explaining the price variations.

Corruption, Government Effectiveness and Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Aside economic factors causing low human development which have been extensively studied in literature, the implications of high level of corruption and weak governance prevalent in sub- Saharan African (SSA) countries have not been explored. The study assessed the effects of corruption, government effectiveness and their joint effect on human development in SSA. Data collected on thirty-seven (37) countries within the period of 2005 to 2018 were analyzed using system Generalized Method of Moment which was most suitable for the dataset. Results indicated that lagged human development index (P<0.01), government effectiveness (P<0.05), economic growth rate (P<0.1) and government health spending (P<0.1) had significant positive effect on human development while corruption and its interaction with government effectiveness did not. The results of Arrelano-Bond test of first order autocorrelation and second order autocorrelation of error term as well as the Sargan test and Hansen J test for validity of instrumental variables confirmed the validity of the model. The robustness of the estimation was established as the coefficient of the lagged dependent variable fell between the values in the fixed effect and pooled ordinary least square regression. The study recommended retraining and reorientation of government employees towards the mindset of effective service delivery and strong political will to achieve it, diversification of SSA economies alongside other growth stimulating policies such as reduced lending interest rate on loans meant for the real sector, improvement in the ease of doing business, improved funding of the health sector and proper monitoring of activities in the public service by concerned agencies to curb corruption where it is present.

The Desire for Luxury in Emerging Markets: An Interactional Perspective on Consumer Motivations in Tunisia

The motivations underlying the desire for luxury products and services have long been the subject of academic inquiry. An understanding of these motivations is useful for the luxury market industry to help managers formulate better marketing strategies. Further, such knowledge would also be useful to public policy makers to help them mitigate societal problems that may occur as a result of such consumption. Of particular interest is the growth of the luxury market in emerging economies. This study spotlights the luxury market in Tunisia. Previous work has demonstrated that age has a significant impact both on willingness to buy luxury products and spend significant proportions of one’s disposal income on such products. As an extension, the objective of this research is to extend these findings by exploring the interactions of age with other demographic variables. Based on survey data obtained from Tunisian Facebook users and analyzed using cross tabulations, this empirical research supports the hypotheses that gender, income, education and marital status moderate the inverse relationship between age and luxury consumption.