Mayors strike back: Evidence from upzoning in France

Guillaume Chapelle (), Julia Paul-Venturine () and Camille Urvoy
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Guillaume Chapelle: CY - CY Cergy Paris Université, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po
Julia Paul-Venturine: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Universität zu Köln = University of Cologne, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po
Camille Urvoy: University of Mannheim = Universität Mannheim, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research

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Abstract: To address rising housing prices, national governments have increasingly sought to relax local land use rules through "upzoning" reforms. Yet the effectiveness of such top-down policies remains uncertain. This paper examines the impact of a reform in France that abolished floor area ratios (FAR) from unique zoning data in the Paris Urban area. We exploit within-municipality variation in pre-reform FAR coverage through a difference-indifferences strategy. We show that local governments opposed upzoning by tightening other regulatory tools -such as maximum heights and building coverage ratios -and denying more building permits. These countervailing responses undermined the deregulatory intent of the reform, resulting in negligible effects on real estate markets. Our findings highlight the political and institutional limits of central government efforts to override local zoning decisions.

Keywords: Upzoning; land use regulations; floor area ratio; Real estate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
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