Housing transfer taxes are fiscally important in many countries despite evidence of substantial welfare losses found in several quasi-experimental studies. Research designs used in this prior literature are prone to attenuation bias due to spillovers from mobility or trading across control and...

We study rental income tax compliance using a large-scale randomizedfield experiment and register data with third-party information on theownership of apartments. We analyze the responses of potential land-lords to treatment letters notifying them of stricter tax enforcement. Wealso study...

This paper asks whether, and under which circumstances, rent subsidies to low-income households increase rents. We utilize a reform in Finland that caused large quasi-random variation in housing allowances. We find that large increases in allowances for affected housing units had little or no...

Supply subsidies to owners of rental housing construction are typically aimed at increasing the overall size of the housing stock or at guaranteeing affordable housing for low-income households. This paper studies whether and how much the tenants of social housing units benefit from this...

Abstract:We develop a model of the housing market that features both financial and matching frictions. In the model, risk-averse households may save or borrow in order to smooth consumption over time and finance owner housing. Each household either rents or owns its house. Some renter households...

This paper analyzes the relative merits of large place- and tenant-based housing programs in Finland in terms of housing affordability and neighborhood quality. Using hedonic regression methods and household micro data, we find that rent savings to public housing tenants are less targeted...

In a dynamic setting, housing is both an asset and a consumption good.But should it be taxed like other forms of consumption or like other forms of saving?We consider the optimal taxation of the imputed rent from owner housing within a version of the neoclassical growth model.We find that the...

We study how a household borrowing constraint the the form of a down payment requirement affects house price dynamics in an OLG model with standard preferences. We find that in certain situations the borrowing constraint shapes house price dynamics substantially. The importance of the constraint...

​We study the interaction of matching and credit frictions in the housing market. In the model, risk-averse households may save or borrow in order to smooth consumption over time and finance owner housing. Prospective sellers and buyers meet randomly and bargain over the price. We analyze how...

​This paper studies how much public housing generates rent savings for the tenants, how these savings are distributed among the tenants, and whether the tenants reside in better quality neighborhoods than similar low-income private rental tenants. Our rent savings estimates are based on a...