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Rent Control: Do Economists Agree?

Author

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  • Blair Jenkins

Abstract

This paper organizes the judgments of economists regarding the impact of rent controls in the American context. The review is limited to journal articles listed by the American Economic Association’s electronic bibliography, EconLit, under the subject search “Rent Control,†and articles cited by those EconLit-listed articles. My findings cover research on many dimensions of the issue, including housing availability, maintenance and housing quality, rental rates, political and administrative costs, and redistribution. It is fair to say that the literature points to a conclusion against rent control, yet as of 2001, about 140 jurisdictions in the United States persist in some form of the intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Blair Jenkins, 2009. "Rent Control: Do Economists Agree?," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 6(1), pages 73-112, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:6:y:2009:i:1:p:73-112
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    32. Grimes, Paul W. & Chressanthis, George A., 1997. "Assessing the Effect of Rent Control on Homelessness," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 23-37, January.
    33. Munch, Jakob Roland & Svarer, Michael, 2002. "Rent control and tenancy duration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 542-560, November.
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    37. Sims, David P., 2007. "Out of control: What can we learn from the end of Massachusetts rent control?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 129-151, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Rent Control Bomb Set Off in New York City by De Blasio Rent Guidelines Board
      by Ronald Bailey in Hit & Run blog on 2015-06-30 23:47:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

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    2. Caleb S. Fuller, 2018. "Privacy law as price control," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 225-250, April.
    3. Marcus Matthias Keupp, 2021. "Efficiency of Military Performance," Springer Books, in: Defense Economics, chapter 0, pages 93-114, Springer.
    4. João Miguel Ejarque & Joachim Borg Kristensen, 2013. "Rent Control and the Housing Expenditure Share," CAM Working Papers 2013-01, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics.
    5. Konstantin A. Kholodilin & Julien Licheron, 2017. "Macroeconomic Effects of Rental Housing Regulations: The Case of Germany in 1950-2015," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1649, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Konstantin Kholodilin, 2017. "A century of tenant protection in Germany: An emergency measure that became permanent," ERES eres2017_ind_102, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    7. Arias MIGUEL & Christine ANDERSON & Walter BLOCK, 2016. "A Paternalist’s Mistake: Rent Control," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 627-637, December.
    8. Miguel-Ángel López García, 2023. "Controles de alquileres," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 246(3), pages 165-206, September.
    9. Konstantin A. Kholodilin, 2022. "Rent Control Effects through the Lens of Empirical Research: An almost Complete Review of the Literature," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2026, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Chen, Ruoyu & Jiang, Hanchen & Quintero, Luis E., 2022. "Measuring the Value of Rent Stabilization and Understanding its Implications for Racial Inequality: Evidence from New York City," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1102, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Hinrichsen, Julius & Nitt-Drießelmann, Dörte & Wellenreuther, Claudia & Wolf, André, 2021. "Der Eigentumsbegriff in den Parteiprogrammen zur Bundestagswahl 2021: Eine ökonomische Analyse," HWWI Policy Papers 133, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    12. Jon Diesel, 2010. "Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Organ Liberalization?," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 7(3), pages 320-336, September.
    13. Andrew Haughwout, 2015. "Urban Economics and Urban Policy: Challenging Conventional Policy Wisdom, by Paul C.Cheshire, MaxNathan, and Henry G.Overman. 2014. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar. 238 + xii. ISBN: 978‐1781952511, $12," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 671-672, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rent control; maintenance; housing availability; price ceiling; price control; vacancy allowance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • 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
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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