ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the possibility of helping Asian-distressed countries recover by stimulating housing construction. The contraction of gross domestic product of several countries such as Thailand and Indonesia after the crisis that started in 1997 is mainly due to declines in aggregate domestic demand rather than a reduction in production capacity. Many writers have proposed measures for reviving these economies (Goldstein 1998, IMF 1998, Noland et al. 1998, World Bank 1998, Yip 1998, and Jackson 1999), but they deal mainly with macroeconomic and financial means and structural issues, and do not present very specific measures. Even if they propose expansion of domestic demand, they do not refer to housing measures. In contrast, this chapter is specifically geared to the development of policies for promoting market-based housing production as a vehicle for reviving small- and medium-scale business activity, boosting employment and income, and at the same time meeting the basic human need for shelter.
