Essays on Landlord-Tenant Laws and Mobility in the United States
Open AccessThis dissertation contains three essays that aim to provide insight into the way housing policies affect both interstate and intra-county mobility in the United States. In particular, it endeavors to provide policymakers with new information on how the rights granted by landlord-tenant laws impact one aspect of renter's lives (mobility) and, through the compilation of a state-law database, sets the stage for future research on the effects of landlord-tenant laws on other renter outcomes. The first essay, "Scope and Variation of Landlord-Tenant Laws in the United States," creates and analyzes a state-level database of landlord-tenant laws and their enactment years. Ranking states as having low, average, and high levels of regulation along four dimensions of landlord-tenant policy as well as classifying these laws as pro-renter or pro-landlord aids in understanding the different policy environments experienced by renters in the U.S. and what makes a state "good" or "bad" for renters. The second essay, "The Effect of Landlord-Tenant Laws on Renter Mobility," employs a triple difference methodology to compare the mobility rates of renters to homeowners in states with and without a Universal Residential Landlord and Tenant Law (LTA) over time to determine the effect of the law on renter mobility. The results indicate state adoption of the LTA and some landlord-tenant provisions (security deposit price ceilings, utility shut-off prohibition, and non-discrimination because of sexual orientation) do not have a statistically distinguishable effects on renter mobility, while other landlord-tenant policies decrease involuntary mobility (quiet enjoyment and non-retaliation). Policymakers should therefore consider the mobility effects of each type of landlord-tenant law individually.The third essay, "Economic Determinants State Out-Migration of Families and Money: Evidence from 2004 to 2010," seeks to establish the economic factors explaining U.S. gross interstate out-migration rates in the mid-to-late 2000s. Using data from the IRS State-to-State Migration Database for 2004-2005 to 2009-2010 and controlling for both characteristics of origin and destination states, the results indicate unemployment and housing price index differentials between origin and destination states increase migration rates between the two states, while the per capita income differential decreases it. Understanding the factors associated with increased interstate mobility can help policymakers design policies to stop or slow the flow of people and resources out of their state.
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