Berlin Moves To Ban Autos From Inside The City. Widespread Chaos Looms

Just 12 car trips person per year would be allowed! The Berlin Constitutional Court has declared the “Berlin car-free” referendum admissible, paving the way for a possible drastic reduction in car traffic. Hat-tip: Blackout News Cars may soon be banned in Berlin. Image generated by Grok 3 AI  The court found that the aim of…

Berlin Moves To Ban Autos From Inside The City. Widespread Chaos Looms

Failing to Learn the Lessons of History

Plenty of people have commented on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to lower food prices by creating city-owned grocery stores, but there is still more to be said about this plan. Mamdani either thinks or believes that voters think that store owners are making huge profit through … Continue reading →

Failing to Learn the Lessons of History

Bish vs the numpties

Chris Bishop announced: The derelict and unsafe Gordon Wilson Flats in Wellington will lose its protected heritage status and become eligible for demolition through an amendment to the Resource Management Act (RMA) in the coming weeks, RMA Reform and Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Gordon Wilson Flats were used as social housing until 2012, […]

Bish vs the numpties

Effects of Zoning: when we restrict supply, prices go up.

Effects of Zoning: when we restrict supply, prices go up.

Very Expensive Affordable Housing

In my post Affordable Housing is Almost Pointless, I highlighted how point systems for awarding tax credits prioritize DEI, environmental features, energy efficiency, and other secondary goals far more than low cost. A near-comic example comes from D.C., where so-called affordable housing units now cost between $800,000 and $1.3 million dollars each! One such unit […]

Very Expensive Affordable Housing

America’s Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?

Housing prices across much of America have hit historic highs, while less housing is being built. If the U.S. housing stock had expanded at the same rate from 2000-2020 as it did from 1980-2000, there would be 15 million more housing units. This paper analyzes the decline of America’s new housing supply, focusing on large […]

America’s Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?

Life is full of tradeoffs: We can have more data centers and local tax revnue or less tourism and a dirtier environment

See Small-Town Locals and Newcomers Unite Against a Common Foe: Data Centers: Residents in Appalachian tourist area band together to keep one of the largest data-center complexes in the world out of their no-stoplight community by Kris Maher of The WSJ. Excerpts:”residents [of DAVIS, W.Va.] are . . . determined to keep big tech out of…

Life is full of tradeoffs: We can have more data centers and local tax revnue or less tourism and a dirtier environment

The Latest Affordability Numbers

Housing in Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore was slightly more affordable in 2024 than it had been in 2023. Wendell Cox’s latest assessment of housing affordability, when compared with last year’s assessment, shows that housing became slightly less affordable in Ireland and the United Kingdom, while affordability remained … Continue reading →

The Latest Affordability Numbers

Excusing the Government

An excerpt from Chapter 3 of *Unbeatable*

Excusing the Government

Is this a gold mine? Iwi might need consulting (for a fee) before your development can be given RMA consents

Bob Edlin writes –  West Coast Regional Councillor Allan Birchfield has whipped up a fuss in his neck of the woods by challenging the Ngāti Waewae representative Francois Tumahai over the iwi’s role in resource consenting. The iwi – it seems – must agree to gold-mining consents in gold-mining country, presumably after appropriate consultation or engagement […]

Is this a gold mine? Iwi might need consulting (for a fee) before your development can be given RMA consents

Housing affordability

Good principles for RMA reform

Chris Bishop and Simon Court announced principles for the RMA replacement, and they generally look very good (but not perfect). Some key aspects: The new system will be based on the economic concept of “externalities”. Effects that are borne solely by the party undertaking the activity will not be controlled by the new system (for […]

Good principles for RMA reform

People Barely Care About Equality

Another simple proof.

People Barely Care About Equality

The importance of the chronometer

The chronometer, one of the greatest inventions of the modern era, allowed for the first time for the precise measurement of longitude at sea. We examine the impact of this innovation on navigation and urbanization. Our identification strategy leverages the fact that the navigational benefits provided by the chronometer varied across different sea regions depending […]

The importance of the chronometer

Institutional ownership of single-family housing

In the last decade, large financial institutions in the United States have purchased hundreds of thousands of homes and converted them to rentals. This paper studies the welfare consequences of institutional ownership of single-family housing. We build an equilibrium model of the housing market with two sectors: rental and homeownership. The model captures two key…

Institutional ownership of single-family housing

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