Local ordinances that limit rent increases for some rental housing units, such as in New York and San Francisco, have had a positive impact over the past three decades on the amount and quality of broadly affordable rental housing in cities that have used them.
Responses
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
7%
2%
32%
49%
7%
2%
0%
Responses weighted by each expert's confidence
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
52%
43%
4%
1%
0%
Participant |
University |
Vote |
Confidence |
Bio/Vote History |
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 Daron Acemoglu |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alberto Alesina |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Joseph Altonji |
Yale | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Alan Auerbach |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Autor |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Rent control discourages supply of rental units. Incumbent renters benefit from capped prices. New renters face reduced rental options.
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 Katherine Baicker |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Marianne Bertrand |
Chicago | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Raj Chetty |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Judith Chevalier |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Rent control will have similar effects to any price control.
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 Janet Currie |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Cutler |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I suspect zoning and building limits have been more important.
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 Angus Deaton |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Darrell Duffie |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Aaron Edlin |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Rent control lowers incentives to invest and increases incentives to hold underoccupied rentals
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 Barry Eichengreen |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Ray Fair |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pinelopi Goldberg |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Price controls create disincentives to increase supply. But without rent control, no one outside the top 1% would be left in Manhattan.
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 Claudia Goldin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Austan Goolsbee |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Michael Greenstone |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Great if you are lucky enough to get one of those apartments! Bad for all others The worst policies apply to new construction.
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 Robert Hall |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Bengt Holmström |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Caroline Hoxby |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Rent controlled units do not end up in the hands of low income people. Rent control discourages landlords from creating modest priced units.
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 Kenneth Judd |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Anil Kashyap |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pete Klenow |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Land use regulations restricted supply as well. Plus, rent controls lead to misallocation of housing units.
-see background information here -see background information here |
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 Edward Lazear |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Even in the short run, rent control induces owners to move property to other uses, misallocate the property, and substitute non-price alloc.
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 Jonathan Levin |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I'm skeptical - but don't know enough about the programs to have a very informed view.
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 Eric Maskin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 William Nordhaus |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Maurice Obstfeld |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Cecilia Rouse |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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While well intended, theoretically they also likely limit expansions in supply and improvements in quality.
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 Emmanuel Saez |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 José Scheinkman |
Columbia University | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Schmalensee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Unless al the textbooks are wrong, this is wrong.
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 Hyun Song Shin |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 James Stock |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Nancy Stokey |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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The planets are lined up here: theory and evidence point in the same direction.
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 Richard Thaler |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Next questions: does the sun revolve around the earth.
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 Christopher Udry |
Northwestern | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Luigi Zingales |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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