PROPEL - Proactive Policymaking for Equal Lives - FHSE

The PROPEL project investigates how housing policies contribute to socio-economic inequalities within and across countries, and the politics of that process.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jan 2021
Duration in months:

60
Funding:

FNR – Luxembourg
Principal Investigator(s):

Lindsay Flynn

About

How do housing policies and housing markets contribute to inequalities within and across countries, and what are the politics of that process? The PROPEL project brings together a multi-disciplinary research team to engage in conceptual and applied research on this question. Based at the University of Luxembourg, and led by Assoc. Prof. Lindsay Flynn, PROPEL is generously supported under a five-year, 2 million Euro FNR-funded ATTRACT grant.

Under the PROPEL project, a team of researchers combine quantitative, qualitative, and experimental research methods to put forward an explanatory framework offering insight into the causes and consequences of housing-driven inequalities. In particular, the team identifies the political processes that lead to contemporary housing policies, estimates the impact housing policies have on different types of households, and tests the causal strength of specific policy mechanisms. The team pays particular attention to inequalities across five key dimensions: income, wealth, age, race, and gender. Most studies are comparative in nature, examining dynamics in Europe and the United States.

Housing affects life chances by shaping people’s wealth accumulation, personal safety, social networks, educational and job opportunities, and even the ease with which they can start a family. In other words, there are many ways through which housing policies can mitigate or reproduce different types of inequalities. The PROPEL project evaluates the way in which such policies generate social rights and shape life chances, and seeks to offer policy-relevant solutions to the seemingly intractable challenge of increasing inequality.

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