Economics

Unaffordable housing and local employment growth: Evidence from California municipalities

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It is widely believed that unaffordable housing could drive businesses away and thus impede job growth. However, there is little evidence to support this view. This paper presents a simple model to clarify how housing affordability is linked to employment growth and why unaffordable housing could negatively affect employment growth. The paper then investigates this effect empirically using data on California municipalities. For various reasons, a simple correlation between unaffordable housing and employment growth cannot be interpreted as causal. Several empirical strategies are employed to identify the causal effect of unaffordable housing on employment growth. The estimation results provide consistent evidence that unaffordable housing indeed slows local employment growth.

Publication Title

Urban Studies

Publication Date

5-18-2015

Volume

52

Issue

6

First Page

1134

Last Page

1151

ISSN

0042-0980

DOI

10.1177/0042098014532854

Keywords

amenity, California, employment growth, housing affordability

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