PapersFlow Research Brief
Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
Research Guide
What is Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism?
Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism is the study of how neoliberal policy ideas and institutions shape housing systems through financial markets, corporate governance, and state restructuring, with consequences for urban development, welfare provision, and inequality.
The research cluster on Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism comprises 130,254 works focused on financialization, shareholder value, housing, capital accumulation, neoliberalism, and related dynamics in urban and welfare systems. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) defines neoliberalism as a doctrine elevating market exchange as a guiding ethic for human action and traces its rise as a dominant framework since roughly the 1970s. "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) links shifts in urban governance to late-capitalist political economy, offering a foundational lens for understanding redevelopment strategies under market-oriented policy regimes.
Topic Hierarchy
Research Sub-Topics
Financialization of Housing Markets
This sub-topic examines how mortgage securitization and real estate investment trusts transform housing into financial assets. Researchers analyze price volatility, affordability crises, and policy responses.
Shareholder Value Corporate Governance
This sub-topic explores the shift to shareholder primacy, executive compensation, and short-termism in US firms. Researchers study impacts on investment, employment, and firm performance.
Neoliberal Urban Redevelopment
This sub-topic investigates public-private partnerships, gentrification, and entrepreneurial urban governance. Researchers assess displacement effects and spatial inequality in American cities.
Asset-Based Welfare and Financialization
This sub-topic analyzes housing equity withdrawal and pension privatization as welfare strategies. Researchers evaluate risks of asset dependence amid market volatility.
Financialization and Income Inequality
This sub-topic links finance-led growth to wage stagnation, rentier income, and wealth concentration. Researchers use econometric models to trace distributional impacts.
Why It Matters
Housing is a core site where neoliberal ideas and financial logics are operationalized through urban governance, global capital flows, and policy change mechanisms described in the core literature. Harvey’s "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) is widely used to interpret why cities adopt competitive, investment-oriented redevelopment strategies that can prioritize property-led growth and land value capture. Sassen’s "The Global City" (2001) provides a concrete way to connect housing pressures to the role of major cities as command centers in global economic networks, helping explain why real estate becomes entangled with cross-border dynamics and elite service economies. For policy analysis, Hall’s "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain" (1993) offers a practical framework for explaining how housing-finance regimes persist or change: it treats policy change as shifts in governing ideas (“policy paradigms”) and learning processes inside the state, which researchers can apply when evaluating proposals such as the news-discussed "Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy" (2025) and "28 Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy Ideas" (2025). Across this literature, the real-world application is interpretive and diagnostic—helping researchers and policymakers explain why housing crises and redevelopment patterns track broader political-economic commitments to market rule and financial valuation rather than only local supply-and-demand conditions.
Reading Guide
Where to Start
Start with "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) because it gives a clear definition of neoliberalism and a broad historical narrative that orients later readings on urban governance, welfare-state change, and global-city dynamics.
Key Papers Explained
A common pathway is to move from macro political economy to meso-level policy change and then to urban outcomes. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) provides the overarching account of market rule as a political project; Hall’s "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain" (1993) explains how such projects become institutionalized or revised through state learning and paradigm shifts. Harvey’s "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) translates these political-economic commitments into a theory of city governance oriented toward competition and investment. Sassen’s "The Global City" (2001) then situates urban housing and redevelopment within cross-border dynamics and global command functions, while Granovetter’s "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness" (2002) provides a micro-sociological corrective that keeps markets and finance anchored in networks and institutions rather than abstract price mechanisms.
Paper Timeline
Most-cited paper highlighted in red. Papers ordered chronologically.
Advanced Directions
Current debate, as reflected in the news items "Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy" (2025) and "28 Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy Ideas" (2025), centers on whether housing policy is moving beyond market-first assumptions associated with neoliberalism. Researchers using the classic texts above are well-positioned to evaluate whether proposed reforms constitute a paradigm shift in Hall’s sense (1993), a reconfiguration of entrepreneurial urban governance in Harvey’s sense (1989), or a rebalancing of global-city pressures described by Sassen (2001).
Papers at a Glance
| # | Paper | Year | Venue | Citations | Open Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Brief History of Neoliberalism | 2020 | Pluto Press eBooks | 9.1K | ✕ |
| 2 | Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of ... | 1993 | Comparative Politics | 7.0K | ✕ |
| 3 | Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies | 1999 | — | 6.1K | ✕ |
| 4 | Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness | 2002 | — | 5.7K | ✕ |
| 5 | Place and Placelessness | 1978 | Geographical Review | 4.7K | ✕ |
| 6 | From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation i... | 1989 | Geografiska Annaler Se... | 4.5K | ✕ |
| 7 | The Global City | 2001 | Princeton University P... | 4.4K | ✕ |
| 8 | The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwell... | 2012 | Social and Environment... | 4.1K | ✕ |
| 9 | Postmodern geographies: the reassertion of space in critical s... | 1989 | Choice Reviews Online | 3.7K | ✕ |
| 10 | When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. | 1998 | African American Review | 3.6K | ✕ |
In the News
28 Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy Ideas
Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy
For the last half-century, housing policy debates and proposals have been dominated by neoliberal, market-based ideas. But after decades of such policies, the United States faces a housing crisis...
Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani's ...
1. Reframing Debt Issuance and Taxation 2. Mobilizing People Differently: Public Sector Expansion, the Public School System, and the Multiplicity of Credits 3. Creating Public Banking and Payments ...
Neoliberalism is dying: Mark Carney's Davos speech ...
extraction\n14:35 – Housing, finance, subscriptions, and permanent rents\n16:10 – Financialisation without innovation\n17:35 – Trump as the political outcome of neoliberalism\n18:55 – What replaces...
The Post-Neoliberal Consensus Is Here by Dani Rodrik
The best that can be said of Trump’s approach to the economy is that it is an experimental phase in the post-neoliberal transition. The good news is that future policymakers will not have to look f...
Code & Tools
This is an agent-based model of the UK housing market written by the Institute of New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford, in collaborati...
This project feeds detailed mortgage market data to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Owning a Home suite of tools . Unfortunately, the ma...
The primary goal of this repository is to provide data users with tools to enable them to produce accurate analytics results. Additionally, this re...
"The US government collects and distributes an enormous database with information about US mortgages called the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)...
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Platform is a Regulatory technology application for financial institutions to submit mortgage information a...
Recent Preprints
The financialization of housing and its political consequences
- Housing FinancializationKeyphrases100% - FinancializationEconomics, Econometrics and Finance100% - Financialized CapitalismKeyphrases66% - Real Estate TransactionsKeyphrases33% - Speculative Asse...
Re-tracing the rise of institutional investor landlords in London and Milan through the lens of state de-risking
Research on housing financialisation in North America and Europe has explored the growing role of institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds as both funders and owners...
Real estate investors, the leverage cycle, and the housing market crisis
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports Real Estate Investors, the Leverage Cycle, and the Housing Market Crisis Andrew Haughwout Donghoon Lee Joseph Tracy Wilbert van der Klaauw Staff Repor...
Financialisation: A Primer | Transnational Institute
## Impacts of financialisation on the economy ### 6. What was the promise of ‘liberalising’ capital flows and what has been the reality?
Housing Precarity and the Financialization of Renting
This chapter presents a periodization of precarious rental housing through three distinct waves of financialization over the last two decades. Whereas financialization 1.0 refers to the speculative...
Latest Developments
Recent research in 2026 indicates that the housing market outlook remains cautious, with projections of stable or slightly improving demand but persistent affordability challenges driven by supply shortages and policy shifts (J.P. Morgan, MortgagePoint, Veros). In finance, discussions focus on the impact of federal policies on affordability, mortgage rates, and credit conditions (MortgagePoint, Veros). Regarding neoliberalism, scholarly work examines its ongoing crisis, financialization of housing, and the persistence of neoliberal policies, with notable analyses of its hegemonic crisis and debates on its future trajectory (Cambridge, SAGE, IJURR).
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
What does neoliberalism mean in the housing-and-finance literature?
"A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) defines neoliberalism as the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself and can guide all human action. In housing-and-finance research, that definition is used to interpret policy designs that prioritize market allocation, privatization, and investor-oriented governance of urban space.
How do researchers explain major policy shifts that restructure housing finance and welfare?
Hall’s "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain" (1993) explains policy change through the concept of policy paradigms and social learning within the state. This approach is commonly used to analyze how housing and financial regulation can change incrementally or through paradigm shifts when prevailing ideas lose credibility.
Which classic framework links urban redevelopment to neoliberal political economy?
Harvey’s "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) links changes in urban governance to late-capitalist dynamics and competition among cities. It is frequently applied to interpret property-led redevelopment, place marketing, and public-private strategies that align city policy with investment priorities.
How does global finance connect to housing pressures in major cities?
Sassen’s "The Global City" (2001) argues that certain cities function as command centers for the global economy and are shaped by cross-border dynamics. In housing research, this framework supports analyses that connect real estate valuation and development pressures to global economic centrality rather than purely local drivers.
Why do scholars emphasize social relations when analyzing housing markets and finance?
Granovetter’s "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness" (2002) argues that economic action is embedded in social structure rather than occurring in atomized markets. Housing-and-finance scholarship uses this idea to analyze how credit, tenancy, redevelopment, and investment are mediated by networks, institutions, and trust relationships rather than price signals alone.
Which papers help connect housing outcomes to welfare-state change and inequality debates?
Esping‐Andersen’s "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies" (1999) analyzes the constraints on harmonizing equality, welfare, and employment in postindustrial contexts. In housing-and-finance research, it is often read alongside neoliberal accounts such as "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) to frame housing as part of broader welfare and distributional conflict.
Open Research Questions
- ? How can Hall’s paradigm-change framework in "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain" (1993) be operationalized to distinguish incremental housing-finance reforms from true post-neoliberal regime change?
- ? Which mechanisms in "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) best explain contemporary redevelopment outcomes in global-city contexts described in "The Global City" (2001)?
- ? How should researchers empirically specify “embeddedness” from "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness" (2002) in housing finance settings where transactions are mediated by institutions, intermediaries, and governance arrangements?
- ? How do the welfare-state constraints discussed in "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies" (1999) interact with the neoliberal political project described in "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" (2020) to shape asset-based approaches to housing security?
- ? What conceptual links between place identity in "Place and Placelessness" (1978) and spatial political economy in "Postmodern geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory" (1989) best explain conflicts over redevelopment and displacement?
Recent Trends
The scale of the literature—130,254 works—signals that housing financialization and neoliberal governance have become a central, sustained research agenda within finance-adjacent social science.
In the most-cited canon, "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" and "From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism" (1989) continue to anchor interpretations of market-oriented governance, while "The Global City" (2001) remains a standard reference for connecting urban housing dynamics to cross-border economic organization.
2020In applied policy discourse, the appearance of "Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy" and "28 Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy Ideas" (2025) indicates increasing attention to explicitly “post-neoliberal” framing, which can be assessed using Hall’s paradigm framework in "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain" (1993) and distributional constraints discussed in "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies" (1999).
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