Research

Do Transfer Tax Cuts Create Homeowners? (with Max Löffler)
Abstract: Many countries offer financial assistance to prospective homebuyers by lowering upfront costs, but the success of such policies in promoting homeownership is unclear. We study a prominent real-estate transfer tax exemption for young homebuyers introduced in the Netherlands in 2021. The reform offers quasi-experimental variation across time, buyers, and units, which we exploit using granular administrative data. The transfer tax cut substantially raised transactions among the young, but we can rule out medium-run increases in homeownership larger than 0.6 percentage points. Instead, we document large timing and bunching responses. More than half of the exemption was capitalized into prices, benefiting sellers. Welfare simulations reveal that, while the tax cut slightly increased overall economic surplus by reducing transfer tax distortions, gains accrued primarily to upper-middle-class households.
Presentations: VfS Innsbruck (2026); CESifo Area Conference on Public Economics (2026); Dutch Ministry of Finance (2026); Cambridge University (2025); Helsinki GSE (2025); FIT Tampere (2025); Tilburg University (2025); Tinbergen Institute (2025); Verein für Socialpolitik (2025); UEA European Meeting (2025); ZEW Public Finance Conference (2025)

Ethnic Matching in Residential Housing Markets  (with Jaap Bos and Olivier Marie)
Abstract: Using Dutch administrative data and the near universe of residential property transactions, we document that homebuyers and homesellers with the same migration background match with each other at rates that substantially exceed random search predictions. Transactions between same-ethnicity buyers and sellers sell at a price discount of around 4%, relative to otherwise comparable transactions. This discount is highly robust and holds across most migrant groups we examine. While around half of the discount can be explained by non-arms-length transactions, the remainder likely reflects ethnic in-group favoritism. Our findings therefore reveal a novel mechanism through which social preferences affect housing market outcomes.
Presentations: Annual Meeting of the Scottish Economic Society (2025), University of Colorado (2024)

Frontloading Wealth: How Parental Transfers Shape Housing and Savings 
Abstract: Parents transfer substantial wealth to their children during their lifetime, yet the timing and consequences of these inter vivos transfers remain poorly understood. I show that most parental transfers occur around first-time home purchases, while transfers are largely unrelated to other life events. Because they are predominantly received by already wealthier children, these transfers increase absolute wealth inequality in the short run. Next, I identify the causal effect of parental home purchase transfers on housing outcomes and subsequent wealth accumulation, exploiting exogenous variation from a Dutch tax-exemption policy. While transfers promote wealth accumulation by enabling homeownership, recipients use them primarily to reduce mortgage debt. As a result, the initial wealth gains dissipate over time, as recipients consume the savings from lower debt service rather than reinvesting them. 
Presentations: Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (2025); University of Konstanz (2025); Maastricht University (2025)

Bidder Beware: Intergenerational Wealth Transfers in the Residential Housing Market  (with Jaap Bos and Nils Kok) 
Abstract: Using an unanticipated tax-exemption policy in the Netherlands, we study the effect of wealth transfers on housing market outcomes. We find that buyers who receive a wealth transfer purchase homes that are 20-35% more expensive, and overpay for a given home by 0.5-2.0%, relative to other buyers. Overpayment is driven by the tightness of the local market in which a home is bought. At the local market level, the policy increases prices due to a spillover effect, whereby home buyers who did not receive a transfer similarly raise their bids in response to an influx of wealth transfer recipients.
Presentations: AREUEA-ASSA Conference (2025); AREUEA International (2023); UEA European Meeting (2023)