Tatjana Neuhuber (p), Selim Banabak (p), Antonia Schneider

Balazs Lengyel

During the first wave of COVID-19, numerous OECD member states introduced short term tenant protection policies, including Austria. The COVID-19-Justiz-Begleitgesetz enacted in early 2020, allowed for deferral of housing rents due between beginning of April and the end of July up to the end of December. Furthermore, the short-term extension of contracts expiring in that period as well as a moratorium on evictions for up to six months were also possible. This paper investigates whether the measures taken succeeded in retaining eviction rates at pre-crisis levels and whether there is significant variation across Austria.

Although, we saw a clear drop off in the number of evictions from 4208, to 3094, there has also been a strong downward trend in the number of evictions since 2006. Additionally, the most common cause of evictions are arrears in rent payment which are directly linked to disposable income of households. Thus, both long term trends in evictions as well as underlying economic drivers need to be considered. Using panel data on evictions observed across 85 court-districts we estimate a Bayesian Poisson-Panel Model with Stochastic Search Variable Selection to formally test the hypothesis of the prevention of rising eviction cases across Austria in 2020. We find that not only did eviction rates not increase during 2020 but reduced significantly compared to previous years.

Felix Pot (p), Sierdjan Koster, Taede Tillema

Balazs Lengyel

Self-reported perceptions of accessibility often do not match accessibility as assessed by land-use and transport system data. A common finding is that despite significant spatial variation in accessibility as calculated from spatial data, perceived accessibility is rather even across space. This raises questions regarding the contribution of the built-environment in perceived accessibility. This paper sets out to assess the role residential self-selection plays in the relationship between the built-environment and perceived accessibility. By employing a quasi-experimental design based on survey data from the Netherlands, this study identifies selection bias in the correlation between the number of opportunities provided by the built-environment and perceived accessibility. The main selection effects identified in this paper are car ownership, preferences towards accessibility and transport mode attitudes. Generally, it is concluded that selection effects work to mitigate the effect that lower levels of opportunities provided by the built-environment may have on perceived accessibility.

Lucas Spierenburg (p), Oded Cats, Sander van Cranenburgh

Balazs Lengyel

Spatial segregation, defined as the uneven distribution of social groups in space (income, migration background, age…) is a major issue in cities. It can lead to discrimination and inequality when associated with scarce social interaction between the different groups. The geographical scale at which segregation unfolds matters, as large segregated areas reduce opportunities for the different groups to melt. This work presents a method to identify segregated areas in cities, and draws the size distribution of these areas in all municipalities in the Netherlands. The focus is set on segregation of individuals with a non-western migration background, as several studies have shown that it impedes interactions with the rest of the population. To determine the size of segregated areas, we first model the potential to encounter someone with a non-western migration background in each spatial unit (6-digits postcodes), using an accessibility metric. Then, we detect segregated areas in all cities using an agglomerative clustering analysis, and measure their size. After applying this method to all Dutch municipalities, we draw the size distribution of segregated areas, and show that there is no characteristic scale for spatial segregation in the Netherlands. The size distribution per city could then be exploited further by relating it to geographic, demographic, and urban characteristics of cities to determine the leverage of municipalities in reducing the spatial extent of segregation.