We use the price effects caused by the passage of rent control in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2021, to study the transfer of wealth across income groups. First, we find that rent control caused property values to fall by 6-7%, for an aggregate loss of $1.6 billion. A calibrated model of house prices under rent control attributes a third of these losses to indirect, negative externalities. Second, leveraging administrative parcel-level data, we find that the tenants who gained the most from rent control had higher incomes and were more likely to be white, while the owners who lost the most had lower incomes and were more likely to be minorities
Mekanismen som undersöks är alltså att hyresregleringen omfördelar från fastighetsägare till hyresgäster - men det är hyresgäster med hög hyra som får mest. Ur pappret:
In contrast to the stated goals of the rent control law, we find that the largest transfer of wealth occurred in the low disparity subsample (8.52%) in which renters are relatively wealthier, while the smallest transfer occurred in the high disparity subsample (0.89%), in which renters are relatively poorer. This pattern persists in cross-sectional regressions. Wealth transfers are positively related to renters’ income and negatively related to owner’s income.