Paper #1836

Títol:

The effect of second generation rent controls: New evidence from Catalonia

Autors:

Joan Monràs i José Garcia Montalvo

Data:

Desembre 2021

Resum:

Catalonia enacted a second-generation rental cap policy in late September 2020. The policy affected some municipalities but not others, and within those, only the units above a certain reference price. Using micro-data on rental units, we analyze the effect of the policy on both rental prices and rental supply. We find that the policy led to a reduction in rental prices of around 5 percent. Half of this price decline is due to changes in the composition of units available in the market, particularly in larger municipalities. The policy also led to a decline in the amount of rental units available in the market. Using variation from the policy change, we compute a rental housing supply elasticity of around 4.

Paraules clau:

Rent control, reference price, housing supply, event study

Codis JEL:

D4, R21, R28, R31

Àrea de Recerca:

Estadística, Econometria i Mètodes Quantitatius

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