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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Warding Off Development: Local Control, Housing Supply, and NIMBYs
Contributor:
Mast, Evan
imprint:
MIT Press - Journals, 2022
Published in:The Review of Economics and Statistics
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1162/rest_a_01192
ISSN:
1530-9142;
0034-6535
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>Local control of land-use regulation creates a not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) problem that can suppress housing construction, contributing to rising prices and potentially slowing economic growth. I study how increased local control affects housing production by exploiting a common electoral reform—changing from “at-large” to “ward” elections for town council. These reforms, which are not typically motivated by housing markets, shrink each representative's constituency from the entire town to one ward. Results from a variety of difference-in-differences estimators show that this decentralization decreases housing units permitted by 20%, with similar effects on multi- and single-family permits. Effects are larger in whiter and higher-income towns.</jats:p>