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Agents, Landlords and Tenants: Price Regulation in a Thick Two-sided Market

This paper examines the impacts of new policies aimed at reducing the cost of renting by regulating the actions of intermediaries in the rental market. We highlight how information frictions between buyers and intermediaries can give rise to rents in the thick two-sided market. The distribution of these rents between intermediaries and sellers, as well as the impact of price regulation, depends on...

Thermal Retrofitting of Worst Performing Buildings Mitigates Risk of High Heating Costs

The pace of thermal retrofit of buildings in Germany remains slow. A Worst-First approach, prioritizing the retrofit of inefficient buildings, would address energy- and social policy objectives and deliver economic and climate benefits. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) show how such an approach would protect especially low-income households often living in very inefficient buildings ...

The Long-Term Implications of Destruction During the Second World War on Private Wealth in Germany

By the end of the Second World War, an estimated 20 percent of the West German housing stock had been destroyed. Building on a theoretical lifecycle model of wealth accumulation, this paper examines the extent to which regional differences in destruction can explain differences in wealth today” – at the beginning of the 21st century. As our empirical basis, we link a unique historical dataset on the ...

Expansion of the social and spatial research data infrastructure SoRa: FAIR, intelligent, integrative (SoRa+)

The interdisciplinary linking of data from different sources from different knowledge disciplines through linked (research) data infrastructure services has become more and more important. As part of the pioneering project “Social and Spatial Research Data Infrastructure (SoRa),” a technical and organizational infrastructure was developed to ensure the prototypical linking of the research data...

Health Implications of Building Retrofits: Evidence from a Population-Wide Weatherization Program

What is the impact of housing upgrades on occupant health? Although economists and policymakers are certain about the health implications of housing upgrades, empirical evidence is largely missing or else only based on small-scale experiments in developing countries. This study provides the first population-representative quasi-experimental estimates based on a large-scale refurbishment program that ...

Airbnb and Rental Markets: Evidence from Berlin

Rent Price Control – Yet Another Great Equalizer of Economic Inequalities? Evidence from a Century of Historical Data

The long-run U-shaped patterns of economic inequality are standardly explained by basic economic trends (Piketty’s r > g), taxation policies or ‘great levellers’ such as catastrophes. This article argues that housing policy, and particularly rent control, is a neglected explanatory factor in understanding macro inequality. We hypothesize that rent control could decrease overall housing wealth, lower ...

Rent Control Effects through the Lens of Empirical Research: An Almost Complete Review of the Literature

Rent control is a highly debated social policy that has been omnipresent since World War I. Since the 2010s, it is experiencing a true renaissance, for many cities and countries facing chronic housing shortages are desperately looking for solutions, directing their attention to controling housing rents and other restrictive policies. Is rent control useful or does it create more damage than utility? ...

Scenario Analysis for Net Zero: The Applicability of Climate Neutrality Studies for Transitioning Firms in the German Building Sector and Energy-Intensive Industry

Various stakeholders are increasingly encouraging companies from the real economy to adopt measures facilitating their transition towards carbon neutrality. In this context, companies are expected to implement forward-looking strategies and climate-related reporting practices using scenario analysis aligned with scientific evidence and credible pathways to net zero carbon emissions. This paper examines ...

Do Rent Controls and Other Tenancy Regulations Affect New Construction? Some Answers from Long-Run Historical Evidence