The Effect of Rent Control on Housing Quality Change: A Longitudinal Analysis.

It is widely believed that rent control leads to a decline in the quality of rental housing. This study examines the effect of rent control on the quality of rental housing in New York City. Quality change is linked to the suppression of rent below market levels and other characteristics of the housing unit. The authors develop a first-order nonstationary, heterogeneous Markov model that allows for true state dependence, observed heterogeneity, nonparametric unobserved heterogeneity, and a mover-stayer structure. The results offer some support for the belief that rent control leads to a deterioration in housing quality but suggest the need for additional investigation of this issue. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.