Research

Publications

Effectiveness and supply effects of high-coverage rent control policies 

Regional Sicence and Urban Economics, 2023 - PDF version

with Jordi Jofre-Monseny and Rodrigo Martínez Mazza 

Concerns related to housing affordability are widespread in cities worldwide, and discussions about adopting rent control policies abound. This paper studies the effects of a rent control policy adopted in Catalonia in September 2020 that applies to some but not all municipalities. The policy virtually covers all the rental market and forces ads and tenancy agreements to specify the applicable rent cap to ensure enforcement. In order to identify the causal effect of the rent control regulation, we implement difference-in-differences regressions and event-study designs and analyze average rents and the number of tenancy agreements signed. Our results indicate that the regulation reduced average rents paid by about 6%. However, this price drop did not lead to a reduction in the supply of housing units in the rental market. We implement several robustness tests to address several identification concerns related to Covid-19. Our results suggest that rent control policies can be effective in reducing rental prices and do not necessarily shrink the rental market.

Media Coverage: InfoIEB (2023), eldiario.es (1), (2), ara.cat, naciodigital.cat

The impact of taxing vacancy on housing markets: Evidence from France 

Journal of Public Economics, 2020 - PDF version

Vacancy is a common phenomenon across developed countries. For policymakers, vacancy is undesirable as it challenges housing affordability, especially in large cities. The implementation of a tax on vacant housing is becoming a more popular tool among lawmakers, however this fiscal instrument has never been properly evaluated. This paper provides the first evaluation of a tax on vacant housing. First, I develop a model to understand the mechanisms of vacancy creation. Then, I use the quasi-experimental setting of the implementation of a tax on vacancy in France in 1999 to identify the causal direct effect of the tax on the vacancy rate. Exploiting an exhaustive fiscal data-set, which contains information on every dwelling in France from 1995 to 2013, I implement a Difference-in-Difference approach combined with a Propensity Score Matching strategy. Results suggest that the tax was responsible of a 13% decrease in vacancy rates between 1997 and 2001. The impact is specially concentrated in long-term vacancy. Results also suggest that most of the vacant dwellings moved to primary residences.

Do short-term rental platforms affect rents and prices?  Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona

with Miquel-Angel Garcia-Lopez, Jordi Jofre-Monseny and Rodrigo Martínez Mazza

Journal of Urban Economics, 2020

Peer-to-peer platforms such as Airbnb have recently entered the market thanks to the development of new technologies. Their influence on traditional housing markets remains understudied. At the same time, the multiplicity of local regulations adopted by big touristic cities in developed countries shows a lack of consensus both on the consequences and on the role of regulation. However, the evidence on the actual impact of Airbnb’s market entry on housing markets is still scant. We assess the impact of Airbnb’s entry on housing rents and housing prices in the city of Barcelona. Barcelona is an interesting case study because the difference in profitability between renting long-term to residents and short-term to tourists caused a significant penetration of Airbnb in some areas of the city. Several estimation approaches that exploit the geography and timing of Airbnb entry indicate that neighbourhoods that experienced higher penetrations by Airbnb experienced increased prices and rents, with the former being largest than the latter.

Getting out or shifting to part-time: Gender disparities in the impacts of corporate restructuring

with Anne Lambert and Delphine Remillon - Access the Final Draft

International Labour Review, 2023 

Working hours and fertility: The impact of nonstandard work schedule on childbearing in France

with Anne Lambert and Chhavi Tiwari - Access PDF

Journal of Family Issues, 2023

Working Papers

Bike-friendly cities: an opportunity for local businesses? Evidence from the city of Paris

THEMA Working Paper 2022

with Federica Daniele, Pablo Warnes, Youssouf Camara, and David Bounie

Cities are increasingly interested in developing cycling infrastructure. Yet, little is known about the (potentially heterogeneous) economic impact of such investments. We evaluate the economic impact of a large-scale cycling infrastructure investment in Paris, the Plan Vélo. Using geolocated data covering nearly the universe of French card transactions we estimate a positive and statistically significant elasticity of local revenues to market access. We find a larger elasticity in clusters characterised by a concentration of smaller and younger establishments. The project increased the non-tradables consumption share of central/less densely populated districts at the disadvantage of peripheral/more densely populated ones.

Success and Failure of a Zero-Interest Green Loan program: Evidence from France

Hal Working Paper 2022 

with Ilya Eryzhenskiy and Louis-Gaetan Giraudet

Zero-interest green loan programs (ZIGL) are gaining traction to address the tremendous financing needs implied by net-zero emission targets. We provide the first evaluation of such a program, the Éco-Prêt à Taux Zéro, introduced in France in 2009 to encourage home energy retrofits. Using an event-study design applied to a panel survey of 10,000 households, we find evidence that the program had a substantial, yet short-lived, effect. Eligibility to the program increased investment by 20-22% on the extensive margin and 2-3% on the intensive one, increasing the probability to switch away from carbon-intensive heating energy by 1 p.p. The effects are however limited to the first two years, after which they turn non-significant. They are primarily driven by low-income homeowners, suggesting the program effectively alleviates credit constraints. These results are robust to a range of robustness checks, including placebo regressions and propensity score weighting. They lead to leverage estimates in the 1.3-1.7 range in the successful period and below 1 thereafter. Using additional banking data to investigate the post-2011 failure, we find suggestive evidence that banks exploited prospective borrowers’ incomplete information to sell them their own loan products in lieu of a ZIGL.

Policy Work and Media Coverage