Dear colleagues,

The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economics Research Seminar on Wednesday, April 27^th, with

Lisa Windsteiger

(Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance)

on

“Why is support for rent control so high? Evidence from a survey experiment”

Abstract: We conduct a survey experiment among 18,000 respondents in Germany to examine the determinants of support for rent control policies. Comparing the effects of five information treatments on support for the Berlin rent cap, a drastic form of rent control introduced in 2020, allows us to disentangle the reasons behind respondents’ widespread support for the policy. We find that support for rent control is driven by insufficient consideration of undesirable price and supply effects, and by a strong desire to prevent displacement of low-income tenants. While our information treatments shift support for the policy into the hypothesized direction on average, the effects generally diminish for individuals with (large) misperceptions. Our results suggest that mere information provision about the effects of a policy is not sufficient to effectively alter views on the policy.

Date: Wednesday, April 27^th

Time: 4.30 to 6 pm (CET)

Location: building TC, fifth floor, room TC.5.18

With best regards,

Harald Oberhofer

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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer

Department of Economics 

WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Phone: +43/1/31336-4984

Fax: +43/1/31336-4984

Email: harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at

Webpage: https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/

Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)

Phone: +43/1/7982601-468

Fax: +43/1/7989386

Email: harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at

Webpage: http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer