Short-term rentals and the housing market: Quasi-experimental evidence from Airbnb in Los Angeles – IAS Public Lecture

SPEAKER – IAS Vanguard Fellow Dr Hans Koster, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Drinks and light bites will be available from 3pm in the Business School Atrium, the lecture starts at 4pm in room G07.

Online short-term housing rental platforms such as Airbnb have grown spectacularly in recent years. 18 out 90 cities in Los Angeles County have severely restricted short-term rentals of entire homes and apartments in recent years by adopting Home Sharing Ordinances (HSOs), while neighboring cities did not restrict short-term rentals. We apply a panel regression-discontinuity design around the cities' borders. HSOs reduced listings by 50-70% and residential property prices by 3%, with much stronger effects in locations attractive to tourists. Hence, we demonstrate that the welfare and distributional effects of Airbnb tend to be moderate, on average, but are substantial in particular areas.

All are welcome to attend.

Dr Hans Koster is a Vanguard Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, hosted by Prof Robert Elliot, Department of Economics.