LIST OF ACRONYMS, POLISH NAMES, AND GLOSSARY OF TERMS

AHS

American Housing Survey

CEE

Central and Eastern Europe

DIM

Dual Index Mortgage

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GINB

Generalny Inspektorat Nadzoru Bankowego (General Inspectorate

of Banking Supervision) 

Gminas

Local authorities in Poland

GOP

Government of Poland

GUS

Central Office of Statistics

HRI

Housing Research Institute (Instytut Gospadarki Mieskaniowej) 

HUDA

Housing and Urban Development Authority

MBS

Mortgage Backed Security

MOF

Ministry of Finance

NBP

National Bank of Poland

PBA

Polish Banks Association 

PLN

New Polish Z

otys

RAM

Reverse Annuity Mortgage 

SCF

Survey of Consumer Finances

UIC

Urban Institute Consortium

USAID

United States Agency for International Development

VUS

Voivodship Statistical Office

Econometrics:

The methodologies by which economic data with unknown

distributional properties and/or various errors of measurement are

adjusted to minimize bias in estimation 

Income elasticity:

The responsiveness of the demand for housing (by households) to

changes in their income

Price elasticity:

The responsiveness of the demand for housing (by households) to

changes in the price of housing (or in the price of mortgage credit)

Macroeconomic:

Refers to economic aggregates for Poland as a whole

Microeconomic:

Refers in this case to data describing a given household

Time series data:

The same information (either macroeconomic or microeconomic)

collected over time at regular intervals

Cross section data:

The same information (for each household) collected at a single

point in time