Perspectives or Misperceptions? Why Better Land-Use Data Are Critical to Housing Policy Debates

2024/01/09 by Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, Eric Biber
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Housing Market and Economics #Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

paper · doi:10.1177/0739456x231216693

openalex publication_date 2024/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

Research correlating stringency in land-use regulation to low housing supply, high housing costs, and segregation relies on surveys of planners about land-use regulation. Housing policy reform proposals rely on much of this same research. We assess the reliability and validity of questions from three surveys using objective data on land-use regulation and its application. Response errors indicate that planners systematically underestimate the stringency effects of local regulation while overestimating the impact of state law. This signals potential bias that may skew some analysis. Scholars should account for this potential bias when analyzing survey data to inform land-use policy debates.

Citations

• A New Measure of the Local Regulatory Environment for Housing Markets: The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index
• Do land use regulations stifle residential development? Evidence from California cities
• What Planners Know
• It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning
• Why Is Manhattan So Expensive? Regulation and the Rise in Housing Prices

Related

• What Planners Know
• Can Land Use Regulation Lower the Price of Housing in Cities?
• A New Measure of the Local Regulatory Environment for Housing Markets: The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index
• Shifts Toward the Extremes
• Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use regulation