Statutory Incidence Matters: Evidence from a Policy Intervention in the German Housing Market

Jörg Claussen, David Streich, Katerina Vlieg and Steffen Zetzmann

No 12618, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study a German policy intervention that shifted the statutory incidence of real estate agent commissions from buyers to sellers. Liability-side equivalence predicts no effect on economic incidence as sellers are expected to pass on the additional burden through higher prices. We use real estate listings and transactions and exploit object-level susceptibility to the intervention in a difference-in-differences analysis. Contrary to economic theory, prices do not increase and sellers bear the burden of the intervention. Consistent with a lack of pass-through, sellers reduce demand for brokerage, especially when brokers are expensive and offer little benefit. Taken together, our results suggest that the intervention was effective at relieving homebuyers.

Keywords: real estate agent commissions; intermediary fees; real estate brokerage; liability-side equivalence; housing policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H22 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hre and nep-uep
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