Buurma-Olsen, J., Koster, \HansR.A.\, \van Ommeren\, J. and Damsté, \.S. (2025). Quantifying misallocation of public housing Journal of Public Economics, 242:1--16.
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Affiliated authors
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Publication year2025
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JournalJournal 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.