HKUST PPOL Newsletter Spring 2024

Zhu, Pengyu, Yuqing Guo, and Praveen Maghelal. “Does Telecommuting Influence Homeownership and Housing Choice? Evidence Based on Pre-Pandemic Data.” Housing Studies (2023): 1-34. This paper analyzes the impact of telecommuting on homeownership and housing type choices by applying a three-step instrumental variable analysis to the 2009 and 2017 U.S. National Household Travel Surveys. It is shown that households with telecommuters are more likely to be homeowners and live in detached or duplex houses than their counterparts. These effects are especially prominent for middle-aged (30–55) households. Relying on robust and national representative historical data before the COVID-19 pandemic, this study provides convincing evidence on how telecommuting affects people’s housing decisions and thus has important implications for understanding the fast-evolving housing markets in the post-pandemic era when a growing number of telecommuters look for homeownership and extract spaces to accommodate home offices. It will provide important guidance for revisiting existing housing policies for urban and rural policymakers to meet the new demand and preferences. Zhu, Pengyu, et al. “Looking Forward: The Long-Term Implications of COVID-19 for Transportation.” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment (2023): 103910. This editorial provides a literature review on insightful investigations on the different long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the transportation sector; the investigations are, however, inevitably limited by the fact that the pandemic is not yet far behind us. It is predicted that there will likely be long-term pandemic impacts that have not yet been fully realized, perhaps most importantly, changes in location choices for both households and firms and resulting changes in the spatial patterns of land use in our cities and suburbs. Furthermore, individuals’ stated preferences during the pandemic may not truly reflect their revealed choices during the post-pandemic era. The lessons and insights in this special issue are hoped to provide an early look into the future, informing decision-making and planning for our changed world. RESEARCH SHOWCASE 14 Anthony B. L. Cheung and Donald Low, 2023. “Crisis Management and Administrative Reforms: Lessons from Hong Kong and Singapore,” Chapters 11 in Shaun F. Goldfinch (ed.), Handbook of Public Administration Reform, pages 182-206, Edward Elgar Publishing. This book chapter reflects on the crisis management experience of Hong Kong and Singapore and highlights the lessons for governments around the world. Focusing on three major crises in the 21st century – the SARS epidemic of 2003, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, and the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-22 - it examines the efficacy of crisis responses, policy learning, adaptation, and innovation, and crisis communications. Each crisis also exposed gaps and inadequacies in their crisis responses and management systems. Their experiences suggest that policy innovation is a process of adaptation and learning from past crises. Yet cognitive deficiencies were also observed, some of them systemic and others due to biases resulting from past crisis experiences.

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