Price Ceilings: Rent Controls
-
0:09 - 0:11[Alex] Today, we'll be looking
at rent controls, -
0:11 - 0:13an application
of what we've done already, -
0:13 - 0:18because rent controls
are simply a type of price ceiling. -
0:18 - 0:19Let's get going.
-
0:23 - 0:25Here's the list of the effect
of price ceilings, -
0:25 - 0:27which you've now seen many times.
-
0:27 - 0:30I'm going to talk about each one of these
in the context of rent controls, -
0:30 - 0:33except for a loss in gains from trade
-
0:33 - 0:35that doesn't really introduce
any new issues, -
0:36 - 0:37so I won't talk about that.
-
0:37 - 0:39Let's talk about the other items, however.
-
0:39 - 0:41Okay. Rent controls create shortages.
-
0:41 - 0:45Let's do our usual diagram,
except this time on the horizontal axis -
0:45 - 0:47we have the quantity
of rental apartments. -
0:47 - 0:49On the vertical axis, we have price.
-
0:49 - 0:51Here's our demand
and here's our supply. -
0:51 - 0:54The main thing we want to add here
-
0:54 - 0:58is that the supply of apartments
in the short-run -
0:58 - 1:01is going to be very inelastic.
-
1:01 - 1:07Why? Well, in the short-run,
the apartments are simply there. -
1:07 - 1:10They're already built, there's not
much you can do -
1:10 - 1:14to change the supply of apartments.
-
1:14 - 1:16Now, this is not quite true.
-
1:16 - 1:19You can take an apartment
which is about to come on to the market -
1:19 - 1:22and turn it instead into a condo.
-
1:22 - 1:24You might switch some uses.
-
1:24 - 1:27You might tear down an apartment early,
things like that. -
1:27 - 1:31But, basically, the supply
is going to be fairly inelastic -
1:31 - 1:32in the short-run.
-
1:32 - 1:35So, we have a controlled rent.
-
1:35 - 1:38This means that they'll be a shortage
in the short-run -
1:38 - 1:42and it's given by this amount
on the diagram. -
1:42 - 1:46Note that most of the shortage
comes from an increase -
1:46 - 1:49in the quantity demanded
when you push the rent below -
1:49 - 1:51the market equilibrium right,
when you lower the rent. -
1:52 - 1:55Only a little bit of the shortage
comes from a decrease -
1:55 - 1:57in the quantity supplied.
-
1:58 - 2:00In the long-run, however,
-
2:00 - 2:03the long-run supply is going to be
much more elastic -
2:03 - 2:05than the short-run supply.
-
2:05 - 2:09So, in the long-run, the shortage
will get much worse. -
2:09 - 2:14In the long-run, what will happen
is that fewer apartments will be built, -
2:14 - 2:17more apartments
will be allowed to run down -
2:17 - 2:21to become dilapidated,
to slowly go off the market. -
2:21 - 2:25Apartments will be turned
into condominiums. -
2:25 - 2:30Instead of building apartments,
people will build car garages, -
2:30 - 2:34people will build other types of housing,
and so forth. -
2:34 - 2:40So in the long-run, the shortage
from a rent-control gets much worse -
2:40 - 2:41than in the short-run.
-
2:42 - 2:45Here's an interesting graph
from Ontario, Canada, -
2:45 - 2:51showing how rent controls can reduce
the number of new units being built. -
2:51 - 2:55So, prior to rent control
even being debated, -
2:55 - 2:59there are about 30 to 40 thousand
new units being built every year -
2:59 - 3:00in Ontario, Canada.
-
3:00 - 3:05After rent control was put into place
in 1975, -
3:05 - 3:09there were fewer than 10,000 new units
being built every year. -
3:09 - 3:14Also note, that the number
of new apartments being built, -
3:14 - 3:15which might be rent-controlled,
-
3:15 - 3:20declined even before rent control
was put into place, -
3:20 - 3:21and that makes perfect sense.
-
3:21 - 3:25An apartment has got to pay
for itself over 30 or 40 years. -
3:25 - 3:28They are very durable, long-lived assets.
-
3:28 - 3:34So if you hear today that in the next year
or two, rents may be controlled, -
3:34 - 3:35you're going to say,
-
3:35 - 3:37"Well, I don't want to build
this apartment unit. -
3:37 - 3:42It's not going to be profitable
anymore. I was expecting so many rents -
3:42 - 3:44for the next 30 or 40 years -
-
3:44 - 3:45that's now being cut.
-
3:45 - 3:49This unit is not going to be profitable,
I don't want to build it anymore." -
3:49 - 3:51And that's exactly what we saw.
-
3:51 - 3:55A discussion in rent controls
reduced the number of apartments -
3:55 - 3:57being constructed.
-
3:57 - 4:01We've also put, by the way,
the number in red, -
4:01 - 4:03the number of non-rental-
controlled housing -
4:03 - 4:05that was being built at the time.
-
4:05 - 4:07And you can see,
it didn't change very much. -
4:07 - 4:11So this illustrates
that it was the rent control itself -
4:11 - 4:15and not other factors in the market,
such as the state of the economy, -
4:15 - 4:18which reduced the number
of rent-controlled apartments -
4:18 - 4:20being built every year.
-
4:20 - 4:23So this illustrates
how rent controls can create a shortage -
4:23 - 4:25by reducing the supply.
-
4:25 - 4:28As with other types of price controls,
-
4:28 - 4:30rent controls create reductions
in product quality. -
4:30 - 4:37So the rent controls reduce the return
to landlords from renting apartments, -
4:38 - 4:40and owners are going to respond
to that price control -
4:40 - 4:42by trying to cut costs.
-
4:42 - 4:43So, they're going to reduce maintenance.
-
4:43 - 4:47They're going to slow down
the repairs to elevators, -
Not SyncedAfter all, you can still sell
just as many units -
Not Syncedthey're not going to mow the lawns
as often as they did before. -
Not SyncedThey can keep all of their units rented
at the rent-controlled price. -
Not Syncedeven when they cut maintenance
and repair costs and amenities, -
Not Syncedand they don't put in the new pool
-
Not Syncedor they don't put in the playground
and so forth. -
Not SyncedThey're no longer in a competitive market.
-
Not SyncedThey have lots and lots of people
who want to rent their apartments -
Not Syncedat the below-market price,
so they don't need to spend so much -
Not Syncedon maintenance and repairs,
and other benefits. -
Not SyncedAnd, since their profits are falling,
-
Not Syncedthey want to try and cut costs as
much as possible. -
Not SyncedIndeed, when rent controls
are very strong, -
Not Syncedserviceable apartment buildings
quickly turn into slums, -
Not Syncedand slums turn into abandoned
and hollowed-out buildings. -
Not SyncedThis happened in New York City,
this happened in Paris, -
Not Syncedthis happened in many cities
around the world, -
Not Syncedwhich instituted strong rent controls.
-
Not SyncedRent controls create wasteful lines
and other search costs. -
Not SyncedSo, finding an apartment in New York City
often takes a long time -
Not Syncedand you have to spend a lot of money
to get a rent-controlled apartment. -
Not SyncedIn one famous example, episode of
Seinfeld, George looks for apartments by -
Not Syncedconsulting the obituaries and rushing to
the landlord anytime he sees someone who -
Not Synceddied who had a nice apartment. And that's
in fact one of the techniques which New -
Not SyncedYorkers use to try and get a
rent-controlled apartment. Another effect -
Not Syncedof rent controls is to increase
discrimination because rent controls -
Not Syncedreduce the price of discrimination. In a
free market, landlords might discriminate. -
Not SyncedBut then, they pay a price because it's
going to take them longer to rent out the -
Not Syncedapartment. But, precisely because the rent
control makes the quantity demanded exceed -
Not Syncedthe quantity supplied. There are more
people lining up to get apartments than -
Not Syncedthere are apartments. So, landlords can
more easily, or at lower cost, pick and -
Not Syncedchoose whom they rent to. Therefore, for
minorities or for people with children, or -
Not Syncedfor people whom landlords are perhaps
slightly don't want in their apartment, -
Not Syncedthe cost to them of obtaining apartment is
going to be even higher than for the -
Not Syncedaverage person. Another effect of rent
controls, which is very common, is paying -
Not Syncedbribes to get a rent-controlled apartment.
Bribes, of course, are illegal. This is -
Not Syncedillegal, but there are ways of disguising
the bribe. One way, for example, would be -
Not Syncedto charge extra for a furnished apartment.
What does a furnished apartment look like in -
Not SyncedNew York City for rent-controlled
apartment? It looks like this. That's a -
Not Syncedfurnished apartment. You get the idea -
it's a way of paying a bribe under the -
Not Syncedtable. As with other types of price
ceilings, rent controls create a -
Not Syncedmisallocation of resources. That is the
apartments are not allocated to the -
Not Syncedrenters who value them the most. If you
ever get control of a rent-controlled -
Not Syncedapartment in New York City, for example,
you never, ever, ever give it up. So, I've -
Not Syncedknown some people who keep an apartment in
New York City just as a vacation home, -
Not Syncedjust for the summer, they go there
occasionally. It doesn't have a lot of -
Not Syncedvalue to them, but the price is so low
that it makes sense to keep the apartment. -
Not SyncedIf they had to pay the market price, then
the high-value bidders, the ones who -
Not Syncedreally valued the apartment, would bid the
price up and the goods would be allocated -
Not Syncedto them. Instead, what we have is people
who only use the apartment occasionally, -
Not Syncedkeeping the apartment, while other people
with large families are scrunched into -
Not Syncedapartments which are much too small for
them. Another classic example: the older -
Not Syncedcouple who stay in their large
rent-controlled apartment even when their -
Not Syncedkids have moved out. It doesn't make sense
for them to move out because they're not -
Not Syncedpaying the full price, they're not paying
the actual value. So you get apartments -
Not Syncedwho are allocated to older couples who
actually have a low value for the -
Not Syncedapartment, even when there are people who
have a much higher value for that same -
Not Syncedapartment and they cannot find an apartment.
One study of this found, for example, that -
Not Synced21% of renters in New York City live in an
apartment that has more or fewer rooms -
Not Syncedthan they would choose if they lived in a
city without rent controls. So the -
Not Syncedapartments become misallocated. Okay.
That's it for price ceilings. Next time, -
Not Syncedwe're going to be looking at price floors,
a price below which it is illegal to go. -
Not Synced- [Announcer] If you want to test yourself,
click Practice Questions. Or, if you're -
Not Syncedready to move on, just click Next Video.
- Title:
- Price Ceilings: Rent Controls
- Description:
-
Rent controls are a type of price ceiling. We’ll use our diagram to show how rent controls create shortages by reducing the supply of apartments available on the market. Rent controls also result in reduced product quality, since they reduce the returns to landlords from renting apartments. Landlords respond by cutting costs or performing less maintenance, leading to lower quality. There are search costs associated with rent controls, and they also lead to a misallocation of resources since apartments are not allocated to renters who value them the most.
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- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Marginal Revolution University
- Project:
- Micro
- Duration:
- 09:43
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls | ||
Melanie Ty edited English subtitles for Price Ceilings: Rent Controls |