Reserve Bank to hold conference on housing, household debt

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is hosting a conference on housing, household debt and policy in December.

High house prices and modest income growth create significant tensions and distributional issues across generations. Elevated household debt and high house prices, combined with subdued inflation outcomes, also pose a challenge for both monetary and macroprudential policy, RBNZ said.

In August, the bank called for submissions of theoretical and empirical paper that explore the dynamic of housing markets and household debt, the implications of housing cycles for the macroeconomy, and the consequences of those dynamics for monetary and macroprudential policy.

Areas of interest to be expected in the conference include:

• Drivers of residential investment and household mortgage choice
• Effects of developments in house prices in economic quality
• Influence of housing market dynamic in consumption and saving behaviour
• Effects of household debt /leverage in mortgage default risk and financial stability
• Influence of household debt in the transmission of monetary policy
• Optimal mix monetary, macroprudential and other policies
• Distributional consideration, monetary and macroprudential policymaking

The conference will be held in Wellington and will feature Christopher Carroll (Johns Hopkins University), Greg Kaplan (University of Chicago) and Dirk Krueger (University of Pennsylvania).


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