Public housing provision and housing vacancies in Japan

Using detailed housing data for Japanese cities, we investigate the relationship between the intensity of public housing provision and the housing vacancy rate. Our empirical evidence suggests that they are positively correlated. This pattern is magnified across Japan's major cities, for which public housing construction is given higher priority. A preliminary mechanism analysis implies that this is partly caused by the rigidity of Japan's housing market, which makes the private-sector housing supply less responsive to demand changes.