Does rent control increase tenant unemployment?
利用纽约市2002-2017年微观数据，发现租金稳定政策使租户失业概率提高超过4个百分点，尤其对有非劳动收入的租户影响更大，揭示了租金管制的意外后果。
This paper proposes and tests the hypothesis that rent control increases tenant unemployment. Using microdata from New York City between 2002 and 2017, we find that rent stabilization increases tenants’ probability of unemployment by more than four percentage points, and the effect is especially pronounced among tenants with unearned income. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ an instrumental variable strategy that exploits the local relative availability of rent-stabilized units at the time of move-in as an exogenous source of variation. We propose a job-search model to explain the disincentive channel underlying our results. These findings highlight the potential unintended consequences of rent control.