• Graduate program
    • Why Tinbergen Institute?
    • Research Master
    • Admissions
    • Course Registration
    • Facilities
    • PhD Vacancies
    • Selected PhD Placements
    • Research Master Business Data Science
  • Research
  • Browse our Courses
  • Events
    • Summer School
      • Applied Public Policy Evaluation
      • Deep Learning
      • Economics of Blockchain and Digital Currencies
      • Economics of Climate Change
      • Foundations of Machine Learning with Applications in Python
      • From Preference to Choice: The Economic Theory of Decision-Making
      • Gender in Society
      • Machine Learning for Business
      • Marketing Research with Purpose
      • Sustainable Finance
      • Tuition Fees and Payment
      • Business Data Science Summer School Program
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • 16th Tinbergen Institute Annual Conference
    • Annual Tinbergen Institute Conference
  • News
  • Alumni

Buurma-Olsen, J., Kost, HansR.A., van Ommeren, J. and Damsté, J.S. (2025). Quantifying misallocation of public housing Journal of Public Economics, 242:1--16.


  • Journal
    Journal of Public Economics

We empirically investigate how rent control combined with the use of a non-market allocation mechanism – centralised waiting lists – affects the efficiency of housing allocation among public-housing tenants. We show that, on average, Dutch public-housing tenants consume a house whose value differs by 7.5% from what they would consume under an efficient allocation. This entails particularly large transfers in housing consumption from younger households to older households. The annual welfare loss arising from misallocation within the public-housing sector is modest, estimated at around €65 per tenant.