On Rent Control

From: C
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2019 1:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Debate (low income housing)

Hi Mr. Block,

My name is C, and I do high-school debate. This month’s debate topic requires us to debate whether or not we should or should not promote market rate housing in urban (low income) areas. I was reading your article that you wrote about this issue, and I have a few questions.

1) How do you think market rate housing and gentrification interact with each other.

2) Do you have any interesting ideas or ways that I can spin an argument against price controls on housing? Something out of the ordinary or could catch my opponents off-guard?

Thx, C

Dear C:

See below some readings on rent control. I hope this helps

Best regards,

Walter

In 1989, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach averred: “The Americans couldn’t destroy Hanoi, but we have destroyed our city by the very low rents.” (Dhillon, 2007). According to Lindbeck, 1972: “In many cases, rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city except for bombing.” In the view of Myrdal, 1965: “Rent control has in certain western countries constituted, maybe, the worst example of poor planning by governments lacking courage and vision.” For further elaboration, see Baird, 1980; Block and Olsen, 1981; Block, Horton and Shorter, 1998; Block, 2002; Dhillon, 2007; Friedman and Stigler, 1946; Grampp, 1950; Grant, 1989; Hayek, 1981; Johnson, 1982;  Lindbeck, 1972; Myrdal, 1965; Salins, 1980; Tucker, 1990

Baird, Charles. 1980. Rent Control: The Perennial Folly, Washington D.C.: The Cato Institute

Block, Walter E., and Edgar Olsen, eds. 1981. ”Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Vancouver, The Fraser Institute

Block, Walter E., Joseph Horton and Ethan Shorter. 1998. “Rent Control: An Economic Abomination,” International Journal of Value Based Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 253-263

Block, Walter E. 2002. “A critique of the legal and philosophical case for rent control,” Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 40, pp. 75-90; http://www.mises.org/etexts/rentcontrol.pdf

Dhillon, Bob. 2007. “The perversity of rent controls,” National Post, June 28, p. FP15

Friedman, Milton and George Stigler. 1946. “Roofs or Ceilings?,” September, Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, http://www.fee.org/library/books/Roofs_or_Ceilings.asp; reprinted as Friedman, Milton, and George Stigler. 1981. “Roofs or Ceilings?” in Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block and Edgar Olsen, eds., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute.

Grampp, W.S. 1950. “Some Effects of Rent Control,” Southern Economic Journal, April, pp. 425-426

Grant, R.W. 1989. “Rent Control and the War Against the Poor,” Manhattan Beach, CA: Quandary House

Hayek, Friedrich A. 1981. “The Repercussions of Rent Restrictions,” Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block , ed., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute

Johnson, M. Bruce, ed. 1982. ”Resolving the Housing Crisis: Government Policy, Decontrol, and the Public Interest, San Francisco: The Pacific Institute

Lindbeck, Assar. 1972. The Political Economy of the New Left, New York: Harper and Row; cited in Rydenfelt, Sven, “The Rise, Fall and Revival of Swedish Rent Control,” in Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block and Edgar Olsen, eds., 1981. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, 1981, pp. 213, 230.

Myrdal, Gunnar. 1965. “Opening Address to the Council of International Building Research in Copenhagen”; cited in ”Dagens Nyheter (Swedish Newspaper), 25 August 1965, p. 12; cited in Rydenfelt, Sven, “The Rise, Fall and Revival of Swedish Rent Control,” in Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block and Edgar Olsen, eds., 1981. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, p. 224; cited in Block, Walter E. 1981. “Preface.” Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block and Edgar Olsen, eds., 1981. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, p. xiv.

Salins, Peter D. 1980. The Ecology of Housing Destruction:  Economic Effects of Public Intervention in the Housing Market, New York: New York University Press.

Tucker, William. 1990. The Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies, Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway

Tenants against rent control; http://www.wclf.org/articles/2.2.1.html

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12:41 pm on June 13, 2019