The Deed and the Wage · Episode 9 of 10 · 24 min
Housing Is the New Land Question: Rent, Wages, and Zoning
The nineteenth century argued about land in the language of rent and enclosure; today the argument is about housing, often without noticing it is the same one. Inequality statistics turn out to be substantially housing statistics, and rent shapes which jobs workers can take. The episode follows the thesis into homeownership, zoning, corporate landlords and the priced-out teacher and nurse.
Who's who
- Matthew RognlieEconomist whose 2015 paper found capital's income share rise is substantially housing
- Thomas PikettyAuthor of Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- Peter GanongEconomist who showed housing costs stalled regional income convergence
- Daniel ShoagCo-author of the Ganong-Shoag convergence study
- Chang-Tai HsiehCo-author of the most-cited estimate of housing constraints' cost
- Enrico MorettiCo-author of the Hsieh-Moretti estimate
- Brian GreaneyEconomist whose comment shrank the Hsieh-Moretti headline number
- Mike DugganDetroit mayor who proposed a land-value tax
Where it happens
- Berkeley, CaliforniaPioneered single-family-only zoning in 1916
- Detroit, Michigan+7 more episodesCity whose land-value tax proposal stalled in the legislature
- Colorado+7 more episodesState where many teachers spend over 40 percent of pay on housing
Timeline
- 1916Berkeley adopts what is widely credited as the first single-family-only zoning
- 1926Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty upholds comprehensive zoning
- 2008-2012Foreclosure crisis lets investors build the corporate single-family rental industry
- 2015Rognlie publishes his housing decomposition of capital's share
- 2023Duggan proposes Detroit's land-value tax; enabling legislation stalls
- 2024GAO reports institutional investors own roughly 2 percent of single-family rentals
Still debated
How much of capital's share rise is really land is disputed, as is the size of the Hsieh-Moretti cost estimate. Whether institutional landlords are a menace or scapegoat, whether upzoning lowers rents, and whether the Georgist revival is real remain open.