Work in progress 

Your Backyard is our Backyard ! The economic effects of land-use planning consolidation

This paper provides new causal evidence on the relationship between government fragmentation, housing supply, and urban sprawl. I compile new data on French intermunicipal mergers to study a reform that required many municipalities to transfer urban-planning authority to a broader community level. The findings show that, when given the choice, municipalities strongly prefer to retain control over land-use decisions. However, when consolidation is imposed, it results in effective cooperation on the development of new planning rules. Land-use regulation becomes more homogenized as the number of active planning documents over a territory decreases by 30%. Building authorizations for denser forms of constructions increase by about 20% in denser and previously constrained areas. These effects emerge gradually, following the timeline of new planning documents, and they are stronger in areas with more constraints on new construction prior to the reform. This provides empirical support for the idea that coordinating land-use at a larger scale helps internalize positive spillovers. 

Contested Ground: Exploring Land Use Conflicts in France (with Eulalie Saïsset) 

 Land-use decisions involve competing actors whose conflicts are difficult to observe yet can shape development beyond formal regulation. This paper analyzes over two decades of construction- and land-use–related litigation in France, using large language models to extract evidence from more than 230,000 administrative court decisions. Five stylized facts emerge. First, litigation is mainly initiated by private individuals opposing authorized housing or regulatory changes that threaten their own development rights. Second, environmental amenity preservation is another major driver, with growing litigation against urban planning documents. Third, litigation against construction is highly concentrated in dense and tourist areas, while challenges to regulation are more widespread and increasing nationwide. Fourth, construction litigation is determined by local economic incentives, housing prices being the main explanatory variable. It can affect a substantial share of new housing and is linked to longer construction delays. Finally, planning documents are increasingly contested both to limit land consumption and to protect individual building rights, highlighting rising difficulties in land-use planning. Overall, litigation is frequent and represents significant friction, while success rates in courts are low, suggesting inefficiencies and potential scope for negotiation.

Are Bigger Jurisdictions Better? The Effects of Local Consolidation (with David Agrawal, Marie Breuillé, Clémence Tricaud)

Fiscal Disincentives: Revenue-sharing, Local Permitting, and Business Attraction in France. (with Thierry Madiès, Eulalie Saïsset, and Albert Solé-Ollé)