Warding off development: Local control, housing supply, and NIMBYs

Arbeitspapier

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. Difference-in-differences estimates show that this decentralization decreases housing units permitted by 24 percent, with 47 percent and 12 percent effects on multi- and single-family units. The effect on multifamily is larger in high-homeownership towns.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Upjohn Institute Working Paper ; No. 20-330

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Housing Supply and Markets ; Production Analysis and Firm Location: Government Policy ; Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism; Secession
• Subject: Housing supply ; land-use regulation ; NIMBYism

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Mast, Evan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
• (where): Kalamazoo, MI
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.17848/wp20-330
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/228431
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET