Kholodilin provides a comprehensive review of the rent control literature, some 206 papers, published and unpublished from 1967-2013. The results are summarized in the figure below where (-) indicates papers that received a negative result, (0) no result and (+) a positive result. The top left figure, for example, shows, not surprisingly, that almost all the papers find that rent controls lower rents in rent-controlled units.
However, many papers that research this issue, find that rents increase in unregulated units (middle row, right column.) In other words, “the imposition of rent regulations increases the housing shortage. Therefore, the waiting lines get longer and the prospective renters have to spend more time looking for a place to live.”
Similarly, “almost all studies show a negative effect of rent control on mobility” (top column, middle row).
Importantly, “published studies are almost unanimous about the impact of rent control on housing quality….[namely] that rent control leads to a deterioration in the quality of those houses that are subject to the regulations.” (middle row, middle column).
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