Housing Constraints and Spatial Misallocation

Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti

No 21154, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We quantify the amount of spatial misallocation of labor across US cities and its aggregate costs. Misallocation arises because high productivity cities like New York and the San Francisco Bay Area have adopted stringent restrictions to new housing supply, effectively limiting the number of workers who have access to such high productivity. Using a spatial equilibrium model and data from 220 metropolitan areas we find that these constraints lowered aggregate US growth by more than 50% from 1964 to 2009.

JEL-codes: E24 J01 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-lab, nep-mac and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

Published as Chang-Tai Hsieh & Enrico Moretti, 2019. "Housing Constraints and Spatial Misallocation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, vol 11(2), pages 1-39.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Housing Constraints and Spatial Misallocation (2019)
Working Paper: Housing Constraints and Spatial Misallocation (2018)
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