All Research
Working Paper
Why Has Construction Productivity Stagnated? The Role of Land-Use Regulation
Abstract We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then…
Working Paper
Low-Rise Multifamily and Housing Supply: A Case Study of Seattle
Abstract We provide an in-depth case study of land use reforms in Seattle to highlight how redevelopment of aging single-family housing to townhomes can lead to a significant increase in…
Op-Ed
Affordable Housing—and No Tax Hike
On Nov. 5, Denver’s voters rejected Affordable Denver, a half-cent sales tax increase for subsidized housing. The tax hike would have burdened working families while failing to address the root…
Multimedia
Harvard Professor Edward Glaeser on the U.S. Housing Crisis
Why are U.S. housing prices so high? Edward L. Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, is an expert in housing and urban economics. His…
Op-Ed
HUD’s Housing Misfire: When Bureaucrats Know Better than Markets
Kamala Harris’s proposal for a $40 billion fund for local governments to explore “innovative” housing solutions will likely funnel money into projects burdened by self-defeating government-mandated affordability requirements, which HUD…
Op-Ed
Harris’s Housing Plan and the Five C’s That Will Derail It
…LIHTC unit costs taxpayers an estimated $450,000, compared to $0 for a private development that it displaces, making it an expensive solution for affordable housing. Complexity: As Chris Edwards highlights,…
Op-Ed
Harris Housing Subsidies: A Recipe for Repeating Past Mistakes
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has proposed housing policies that recycle ineffective strategies long seen in federal housing programs. Her key proposals include subsidies for the construction of 3 million new…
Testimony
The Costs of Inaction: Economic Risks from Housing Unaffordability
Chairman Whitehouse, Ranking Member Grassley, and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this most important topic. History offers a cautionary tale against inappropriate federal action in the…
Op-Ed
The Promise — and Danger — of Kamala Harris’s YIMBYism
…for new, “missing middle” starter homes. It would mean not pushing for “low-income” housing that conjures public housing high-rises but, rather, what Edward Pinto and Tobias Peters, my colleagues at…
Op-Ed
The Kamala Harris Plan for More Housing Shortages
A signature feature of Kamala Harris’s housing plan is providing first-time home buyers with $25,000 in down-payment support, at a total cost of $100 billion over four years. Absent a severe…
Op-Ed
As America’s housing crisis intensifies, the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2024 has emerged as a high-profile yet expensive solution.
…fate. To continue reading this op-ed online on The Hill, click here. Tobias Peter and Edward Pinto are co-directors of the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center. The views expressed in this article are…
Op-Ed
Kamala Harris’s Housing Plan Would Be Worse Than Doing Nothing
…cost and without unintended consequences. Edward Pinto is the senior fellow and codirector of the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center. Tobias Peter is the senior fellow and codirector of the…