Rent Control: Reviewing Consensus on Short-Term Gains & Long-Term Consequences

Abstract

Contemporary North Atlantic municipal governments have struggled to address ever widening inequalities through a new wave of rent control in discussions typically devoid of analysis of the first two generations of modern rent control. Our extensive review of the literature aggregates arguments for this vital policy debate under four key themes that emerge from the scholarship itself: “transfers and inequality,” “construction and maintenance,” “migration and mobility,” and “wages and employment.” Based on the analysis of this literature we argue while positive outcomes of rent control more commonly aggregate in the short-term, negative outcomes more commonly aggregate in the long-term.

Keywords: misallocation, welfare transfers, housing affordability inequality, migration and mobility