Free Movement and Affordable Housing : Public Preferences for Reform in Uzbekistan

Seitz, William

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: INTERNAL MIGRATION;    URBANIZATION;    HOUSING;    AFFORDABILITY;    PROPISKA;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9107
RP-ID  :  WPS9107

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Uzbekistan has one of the lowest ratesof internal migration in the world, leading to persistenteconomic imbalances. Drawing from a unique monthly panelsurvey called Listening to the Citizens of Uzbekistan and asurvey experiment, this paper focuses on two factors thatprevent domestic mobility: (i) restrictive propiskaregistration policies, and (ii) the exceptionally high costof urban housing. Registration rules prohibit migration tourban centers, and urban housing costs push up the cost ofliving to as much as 550 percent of the national average,levels severely unaffordable for almost all rural residents.But the proposed government reforms in 2019 to address thesechallenges are very popular. The results show that about 90percent of people support lifting all registrationrestrictions and over 80 percent favor increasing urbanhousing construction. The results of the experiment showthat reform popularity increases when propiska rules andhousing costs are referenced in randomly assigned vignettes.However, views may also be sensitive to perceptions offairness. Recent high-profile involuntary demolitionscoincided with a doubling of the share responding thatpolicies are unfair. The increase was further associatedwith declining optimism and lower support for the widergovernment national development program, beyond urbanization issues.