The Impact of Upzoning on Housing Construction in Auckland

Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy and Peter Phillips

No 2330, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: There is a growing debate about whether upzoning is an effective policy response to housing shortages and unaffordable housing. This paper provides empirical evidence to further inform debate by examining the various impacts of recently implemented zoning reforms on housing construction in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area in New Zealand. In 2016, the city up zoned approximately three quarters of its inner suburban land to facilitate construction of more intensive housing. We use a quasi-experimental approach to analyze the short-run impacts of the reform on construction, allowing for potential shifts in construction from non-upzoned to upzoned areas (negative spillovers) that would, if unaccounted for, lead to an overestimation of treatment effects. We find strong evidence that upzoning stimulated construction. Treatment effects remain statistically significant even under implausibly large spillovers that would necessi tate a six-fold increase in the trend rate of construction in control areas under the counterfactual of no-upzoning. Our findings support the argument that upzoning can stimulate housing supply and suggest that further work to identify factors that mediate the efficacy of upzoning in achiev ing wider objectives of the policy would assist policymakers in the design of zoning reforms in the future.

Keywords: Upzoning; Land Use Regulations; Redevelopment; Housing Construction; Housing Affordability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R14 R31 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2022-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d23/d2330.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of upzoning on housing construction in Auckland (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2330

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Cowles Foundation, Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA
The price is None.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Brittany Ladd ().