EXTRA: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work (Update)

Freakonomics Radio

A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. We revisit a 2019 episode to hear why.

• SOURCES:
  • Tommy Andersson, professor of economics at Lund University.
  • Vicki Been, professor of law at New York University and former deputy mayor for housing and economic development in New York City.
  • Rebecca Diamond, professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
  • David Eisenbach, history lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University.
  • Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University.

• RESOURCES:
  • "The State of the Nation's Housing 2024," by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (2024).
  • “The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco,” by Rebecca Diamond, Tim McQuade, and Franklin Qian (American Economic Review, 2019).
  • “Housing Market Spillovers: Evidence from the End of Rent Control in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” by David H. Autor, Christopher J. Palmer, and Parang A. Pathak (Journal of Political Economy, 2014).
  • “An Econometric Analysis of Rent Control,” by Edgar O. Olsen (Journal of Political Economy, 1972).
  • Roofs or Ceilings?: The Current Housing Problem, by Milton Friedman and George J. Stigler (1946).