On the economic impacts of constraining second home investments

Christian Hilber and Olivier Schöni

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We investigate how political backlash against wealthy second home investors in high natural amenity places affects local residents. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment: the ‘Swiss Second Home Initiative’, which banned the construction of new second homes in desirable seasonal tourist locations. Consistent with our model, we find that the ban substantially lowered (increased) the price growth of primary (second) homes and increased the unemployment growth rate in the affected areas. Our findings suggest that the negative effect on local economies dominated the positive amenity-preservation effect. We conclude that constraining second home construction in seasonal tourist locations where primary and second homes are not close substitutes may reinforce wealth inequality.

Keywords: second homes; wealth inequality; land use regulation; housing policy; house prices; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 G12 R11 R21 R31 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2020-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in Journal of Urban Economics, 1, July, 2020, 118. ISSN: 0094-1190

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/104697/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: On the economic impacts of constraining second home investments (2020)
Working Paper: On the economic impacts of constraining second home investments (2020)
Working Paper: The economic impacts of constraining second home investments (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:104697

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