Research Seminar – The Effects of Transport Infrastructure on Housing Supply: The Role of Land-Use Regulation

The Growth Lab’s Research Seminar series is a weekly seminar that brings together researchers from across the academic spectrum who share an interest in growth and development.

Speaker: Kenzo Asahi, Assistant Professor, School of Government Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile

Whether attending in person or virtually, please register in advance.

Abstract: We study the impact of new transportation infrastructure on housing supply using historical and microdata from Santiago and exploiting instrumental variables. We find that subway and highway expansions increase residential floor space substantially, but when we account for land-use regulation, we see two contrasting dynamics in the city. In the wealthiest quintile, the effect is negligible for more than 95% of the blocks due to their initial stringent regulation. However, in blocks in the first four quintiles of wealth, the impact on housing supply is substantial and homogeneous concerning the initial regulation. We provide evidence that the transport infrastructure triggers regulation to become more permissive everywhere but in the wealthiest neighborhoods. We quantify how land-use regulation limits housing supply, thus restraining welfare gains from transport infrastructure improvements.

Speaker Bio: Kenzo Asahi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Government. His research focus is on the intersection of urban economics and labor economics. His research explores the effect of physical and human space on the human and economic development of city dwellers. He holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a Master in Research (MRes) in Economics from University College London, a Master of Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Engineering from UC, and a civil engineer from UC.