This paper introduces a new international longitudinal database of governmental housing policies. The regulations are measured using binary variables based on a thorough analysis of the real-time country-specific legislation. Three major restrictive policies are considered: rent control,...

Rent control is a highly debated social policy that has been omnipresent since World War I. Since the 2010s, it is experiencing a true renaissance, for many cities and countries facing chronic housing shortages are desperately looking for solution, directing their attention to controling housing...

Urban areas confront a chronic shortage of housing, especially in the low-rent segment. This precarious situation is further exacerbated by major challenges, like the destruction of housing by wars and natural catastrophes, rapid increase of demand, or pandemics cutting incomes. In response, the...

Housing markets are affected by a large variety of factors. Among them, governmental regulations play an important role. Besides desired effects, all these policies exert a number of side effects, some of which can even offset the desired effects. In addition, different policies can cancel out...

Housing bubbles and crashes are catastrophic events for economies, implying enormous destruction of housing wealth, financial default risks, construction unemployment, and business cycle downturns. This paper investigates whether governmental housing policies can affect economies’ propensity...

The World War I played a key role in shaping modern housing policy. While in the pre-War time virtually no housing policy existed, the beginning of hostilities led to an almost immediate and comprehensive state intervention in the housing market, particularly among those engaged in the war....

Am 1. Juni 2016 ist die viel diskutierte Mietpreisbremse ein Jahr in Kraft. Seither wurde sie in 308 Städten eingeführt. Die im Vorfeld geäußerten Befürchtungen, die dringend benötigte Bautätigkeit würde damit massiv ausgebremst, haben sich ebenso wenig bewahrheitet wie die Hoffnungen,...

In the shadow of homeownership and public housing, social policy through the regulation of private rental markets is a neglected and underestimated field of social policy. This paper, therefore, presents unique new data on the development of private tenancy legislation through the binary coding...

This paper empirically analyzes the effects of a second generation rent control. We make use of an uncommon policy intervention in the German housing market and translate the generated variation into a difference-and-differences setup, augmented with elements of a discontinuity design, to...

Die Mietpreisbremse ist das zentrale wohnungsmarktpolitische Projekt der vergangenen Jahre. Umso größer war die Ernüchterung, als erste empirische Studien – auch des DIW Berlin – darauf hindeuteten, dass die Mietpreisbremse den Anstieg der Mieten insgesamt nicht spürbar verlangsamt....