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Housing market discrimination, housing regulations and intermediaries

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  • Etienne Wasmer

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Housing and labor markets exhibit many similarities. First, information is imperfect. Tenant quality, like worker quality, is unobserved. Second, separation is costly and time consuming. The laws and regulation typically complicate or slow down the termination process of the contractual relationship and make it more costly for firms and landlords to fire an employee /evict a tenant. And finally, there are rigidities in nominal wages and rents. Adapting tools from labor theory, we attempt to understand how landlords wish to screen and possibly statistically discriminate against potential tenants. They do so when housing regulations are more stringent. If they have a "taste against discrimination" (the opposite of Becker's "taste for discrimination"), they are more likely to have recourse to agencies in order to outsource screening. Preliminary descriptive evidence of cross-country differences in housing regulations and housing market functioning is provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Housing market discrimination, housing regulations and intermediaries," Post-Print hal-01053551, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01053551
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-01053551
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel Desgranges & Étienne Wasmer, 2000. "Appariements sur le marché du logement," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 58, pages 253-287.
    2. Read, Colin, 1993. "Tenants' search and vacancies in rental housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 171-183, April.
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    11. Thies, Clifford F, 1993. "Rent Control with Rationing by Search Costs: A Note," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 159-165, September.
    12. Read, Colin, 1997. "Vacancies and Rent Dispersion in a Stochastic Search Model with Generalized Tenant Demand," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 223-237, November.
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    14. Colin Read, 1988. "Advertising and Natural Vacancies in Rental Housing Markets," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 16(4), pages 354-363, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Antoine Bonleu, 2019. "Procedural Formalism and Social Networks in the Housing Market," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 133, pages 25-56.
    2. Pablo Casas-Arce & Albert Saiz, 2006. "Owning versus leasing: do courts matter?," Working Papers 06-21, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    3. Pablo Casas-Arce & Albert Saiz, 2010. "Owning versus Renting: Do Courts Matter?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 137-165, February.

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