IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ksp/journ1/v3y2016i4p627-637.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Paternalist’s Mistake: Rent Control

Author

Listed:
  • Arias MIGUEL

    (Loyola University, New Orleans, USA.)

  • Christine ANDERSON

    (Loyola University, New Orleans, USA.)

  • Walter BLOCK

    (Loyola University, New Orleans, USA.)

Abstract

Rent control, to the economically uninitiated, sounds like a good idea. After all, given that poor people spend a disproportionate percentage of their incomes on housing, what policy could possibly be of more help to them than to lower their rents? Profit-seeking landlords can hardly be expected to do so on their own. Their inability to undertake so public-spirited a policy thus constitutes a “market failure,” and only government can ride to the rescue the suffering masses. This at least is the story widely told by journalists, clergy, teachers, etc. The present paper is an attempt to shed some light on the very opposite perspective: that rent controls lower the supply of residential rental housing, and thus hurt the poor, the very people supposedly helped by this unwarranted legislation.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ksp:journ1:v:3:y:2016:i:4:p:627-637
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/JEPE/article/download/1058/1101
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/JEPE/article/view/1058
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:ejw:journl:v:6:y:2009:i:1:p:73-112 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Alston, Richard M & Kearl, J R & Vaughan, Michael B, 1992. "Is There a Consensus among Economists in the 1990's?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 203-209, May.
    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. repec:ejw:journl:v:6:y:2009:i:1:p:73-112 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Roger Gordon & Gordon B. Dahl, 2013. "Views among Economists: Professional Consensus or Point-Counterpoint?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 629-635, May.
    3. Murphy, Frederic & Pierru, Axel & Smeers, Yves, 2019. "Measuring the effects of price controls using mixed complementarity models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(2), pages 666-676.
    4. Chen, Ruoyu & Jiang, Hanchen & Quintero, Luis E., 2023. "Measuring the value of rent stabilization and understanding its implications for racial inequality: Evidence from New York City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Ho Fai Chan & Bruno S. Frey & Jana Gallus & Markus Schaffner & Benno Torgler & Stephen Whyte, 2016. "External Influence as an Indicator of Scholarly Importance," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 62(1), pages 170-195.
    6. Hui Li & Yijin Kim & Kannan Srinivasan, 2022. "Market Shifts in the Sharing Economy: The Impact of Airbnb on Housing Rentals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8015-8044, November.
    7. Marina Riem, 2017. "Essays on the Behavior of Firms and Politicians," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 73, April.
    8. Hendrik P. van Dalen, 2019. "Values of Economists Matter in the Art and Science of Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 472-499, August.
    9. Thomas Mayer, 1998. "Indexed Bonds And Heterogeneous Agents," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 16(1), pages 77-84, January.
    10. Daniel Levy & Avichai Snir, 2022. "Potterian economics," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pages 1-32.
    11. Svarer, Michael & Rosholm, Michael & Munch, Jakob Roland, 2005. "Rent control and unemployment duration," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2165-2181, December.
    12. James Alm, 2017. "Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 835-854, April.
    13. repec:jpe:journl:549 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Hiermeyer, Martin, 2016. "Crowding Out of Monetary Policy as a Limitation of Fiscal Policy," MPRA Paper 73491, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Mora, Juan S., 2008. "The institutions of house tenancy markets in post-war Western Europe : an economic analysis," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp08-11, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    16. Thomas Mayer, 2001. "The role of ideology in disagreements among economists: a quantitative analysis," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 253-273.
    17. Louis Jaeck, 2011. "Information and political failures: to what extent does rational ignorance explain irrational beliefs formation?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 287-301, September.
    18. repec:ejw:journl:v:6:y:2009:i:3:p:337-348 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Potrafke, Niklas, 2013. "Minority positions in the German Council of Economic Experts: A political economic analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 180-187.
    20. Timothy C. Haab & John C. Whitehead, 2017. "What do Environmental and Resource Economists Think? Results from a Survey of AERE Members," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 43-58.
    21. Chris Doucouliagos & T.D. Stanley, 2013. "Are All Economic Facts Greatly Exaggerated? Theory Competition And Selectivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 316-339, April.
    22. John Moorhouse & Andrew Morriss & Robert Whaples, 1999. "Economics and the Law: Where is There Consensus?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 43(2), pages 81-88, October.
    23. Mary C. Daly, 2021. "Climate Risk and the Fed: Preparing for an Uncertain Certainty," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2021(17), pages 1-08, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    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:ksp:journ1:v:3:y:2016:i:4:p:627-637. 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: Bilal KARGI The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Bilal KARGI to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.kspjournals.org .

    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.