Filtering
In this class we focus on the relationship between low-income housing and the rest of the housing market. In particular, we focus on Mast (2021) who empirically highlights the migration chains that result from the development of high-income housing. With a preliminary theoretical and empirical introduction, we then turn our conversation to recent efforts to convert office buildings to residential units: should they require mandatory setasides for affordable housing? Slides
Article: Calgary, Chicago Bloomberg (May 9, 20214), New York City
Folk Economics and Housing
We incorporate the work of Nall et al. (2022) into our class discussions of Filtering and Rent Control. Nall et al. (2022) illustrates that the potential benefits from additional housing – as layed out in Mast (2021) – are politically difficult to achieve becuase they are diffuse, what the authors refer to as a “Spatial Collective Action Problem”. Slides
Rent Control
In this class we discuss the impacts of rent control policies. Most undergrads are comfortable with explaining the impact of rent control (a price ceiling). Diamond et al. (2019) attempts to provide additional insight to this topic by leveraging consumer reference data and a quasi-experimental design. We discuss the relative strenghts of this work. Slides, Discussion Questions
Articles:
- Supreme Court, NYC Rent Stablization, Odd Lots, NYC 2019 Law, How Rent Controls Are Deepening the Dutch Housing Crisis)
Public Housing
Writings: Jackson 1985: Ch 12
Articles: Slate
Discrimination
Housing Choice Vouchers
In this class we examine the impact of providing tenants in public housing with the opportunity to move to low-income neighborhoods. Focused on Chetty 2016, we examine the relative impacts of younger and older children across a range of outcome (employment, eduction, marriage, and neighborhood). Slides, Discussion Questions
Housing Choice Vouchers & Desegregation
Articles Baltimore MTO 1995
Improvements to Housing Choice Vouchers
In this class we examine potential ways to two ways to increase moves to opportunities. The first is Fair Market Rents. Collinson and Ganong (2018) highlight that a finer variation of the FMR improves the neighborhood location of tenant holders relative to simply increasing the FMR uniformly. From a methodological standpoint, the paper provides us with an opportunity to strengthen our ability to interpret results via the residualized framework as it makes use of continuous two stage difference-in-difference regression models. Slides. We continue to dive deeper into the topic of vouchers and the importance of neighborhoods by discussing the work on “Creating Moves to Opportunity”. In contrast to prior work covered in class, the paper is a nice illustration of the clear insight one can produce with experimental work which tests for various mechanisms. The second half of the paper is particularly enjoyable to read as the authors depict the various ways in which Housing Navigator made a difference, drawing on anecdotal testimony from tenants. Slides
Writings:
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
Sticking with the notion of moving to opportunity, we turn our attention in this class into a deep dive on supply side initiatives with particular attention on the Low-income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). We focus on the recent work of Cook et a. (2024) which explores how the demand of low-income housing responds to the spatial location of the unit in ways which potentially make it harder for policy makers to target need. Slides, Discussion Questions
Case Study: Habitat for Humanity (New Orleans)
Writings:
- Habitat for Humanity Helped Them Get Homes. An Insurance Crisis May Take Them Away.
- Soaring Insurance Costs Could ‘End’ Affordable Housing, Developers Warn
Inclusionary Housing
