IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v7y2015i3p154-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Housing Vouchers and the Price of Rental Housing

Author

Listed:
  • Michael D. Eriksen
  • Amanda Ross

Abstract

We estimate the effect of increasing the supply of housing vouchers on rents using a panel of housing units in the American Housing Survey. We do not find that an increase in vouchers affected the overall price of rental housing but do estimate differences in effects based on an individual unit's rent before the voucher expansion. Our results are consistent with voucher recipients renting more expensive units after receiving the subsidy. We also find that the largest price increases were for units near the maximum allowable voucher rent in cities with an inelastic housing supply. (JEL H23, I38, R31, R38)

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Eriksen & Amanda Ross, 2015. "Housing Vouchers and the Price of Rental Housing," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 154-176, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:7:y:2015:i:3:p:154-76
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20130064
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/pol.20130064
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/data/0703/2013-0064_data.zip
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/ds/0703/2013-0064_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fack, Gabrielle, 2006. "Are housing benefit an effective way to redistribute income? Evidence from a natural experiment in France," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 747-771, December.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko & Raven E. Saks, 2006. "Urban growth and housing supply," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 71-89, January.
    3. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    4. Gibbons, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 2006. "The incidence of UK housing benefit: Evidence from the 1990s reforms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(4-5), pages 799-822, May.
    5. Edward L. Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, 2005. "Urban Decline and Durable Housing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(2), pages 345-375, April.
    6. repec:aei:rpbook:34784 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. C. Lance Barnett, 1979. "Expected and Actual Effects of Housing Allowances on Housing Prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 7(3), pages 277-297, September.
    8. Susin, Scott, 2002. "Rent vouchers and the price of low-income housing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 109-152, January.
    9. Finkelstein, Amy, 2002. "The effect of tax subsidies to employer-provided supplementary health insurance: evidence from Canada," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 305-339, June.
    10. Laferrere, Anne & Le Blanc, David, 2004. "How do housing allowances affect rents? An empirical analysis of the French case," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 36-67, March.
    11. Edgar O. Olsen, 2003. "Housing Programs for Low-Income Households," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 365-442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. John Weicher, 2012. "Housing Policy at a Crossroads: The Why, Who, and How of Assistance Programs," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 24963, September.
    13. Stuart S. Rosenthal, 1999. "Residential Buildings And The Cost Of Construction: New Evidence On The Efficiency Of The Housing Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 288-302, May.
    14. Joseph Gyourko & Albert Saiz & Anita Summers, 2008. "A New Measure of the Local Regulatory Environment for Housing Markets: The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(3), pages 693-729, March.
    15. DiPasquale, Denise, 1999. "Why Don't We Know More about Housing Supply?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 9-23, January.
    16. Robert A. Moffitt, 2003. "Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number moff03-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.
    2. Hyslop, Dean R. & Rea, David, 2019. "Do housing allowances increase rents? Evidence from a discrete policy change," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    3. Aki Kangasharju, 2010. "Housing Allowance and the Rent of Low‐income Households," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(3), pages 595-617, September.
    4. Brewer, Mike & Browne, James & Emmerson, Carl & Hood, Andrew & Joyce, Robert, 2019. "The curious incidence of rent subsidies: Evidence of heterogeneity from administrative data," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. Johannes Abeler & Felix Marklein, 2017. "Fungibility, Labels, and Consumption," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 99-127.
    6. Christian A. L Hilber & Jan Rouwendal & Wouter Vermeulen, 2021. "Local economic conditions and the nature of new housing supply," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 339-366.
    7. Essi Eerola & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2021. "Housing Allowance and Rents: Evidence from a Stepwise Subsidy Scheme," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 84-109, January.
    8. Gibbons, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 2006. "The incidence of UK housing benefit: Evidence from the 1990s reforms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(4-5), pages 799-822, May.
    9. Corentin Trevien, 2016. "Four essays in empirical urban economics : evaluation of French regional policies [Quatre essais en économie urbaine empirique : évaluation de politiques d'aménagement du territoire]," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03498772, HAL.
    10. Raya, Josep Maria & Torres-Pruñonosa, Jose, 2022. "The importance of administrative data in the evaluation of the incidence of social housing allowance programmes," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    11. Doron Sayag & Noam Zussman, 2015. "The Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords:The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2015.01, Bank of Israel.
    12. Corentin Trevien, 2016. "Four essays in empirical urban economics : evaluation of French regional policies [Quatre essais en économie urbaine empirique : évaluation de politiques d'aménagement du territoire]," SciencePo Working papers tel-03498772, HAL.
    13. Anthony Yezer & William Larson & Weihua Zhao, 2018. "An Examination of the Link between Urban Planning Policies and the High Cost of Housing and Labor," Working Papers 2018-6, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    14. Matti Viren, 2013. "Is the housing allowance shifted to rental prices?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1497-1518, June.
    15. Eriksen, Michael D. & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2010. "Crowd out effects of place-based subsidized rental housing: New evidence from the LIHTC program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 953-966, December.
    16. Braakmann, Nils & McDonald, Stephen, 2020. "Housing subsidies and property prices: Evidence from England," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    18. Edgar O. Olsen & Dirk W. Early & Paul E. Carrillo, 2012. "This paper documents the production of a panel of price indices for housing services, other produced goods, and all produced goods for each metropolitan area in the United States and the non-metropoli," Virginia Economics Online Papers 402, University of Virginia, Department of Economics.
    19. Gibbons, Stephen & Sanchez-Vidal, Maria & Silva, Olmo, 2020. "The bedroom tax," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Fack, Gabrielle, 2006. "Are housing benefit an effective way to redistribute income? Evidence from a natural experiment in France," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 747-771, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:7:y:2015:i:3:p:154-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.