Graduation Year

2018

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Roberto Pedace

Reader 2

Nayana Bose

Abstract

The rise of Airbnb and other home-sharing platforms has changed the way people travel by offering a new lodging option that is unique and versatile. The growing commercialized usage of home-sharing has caused concerns for many cities across the United States concerning long-term housing availability and prices. Previous papers have confirmed this theory, finding that the increased usage of home-sharing results in increased rent and housing prices across the United States. Due to this issue, many major cities have decided to highly regulate the home-sharing market. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of these regulations in New York City, Portland, Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Denver and discusses their effects on rent prices, median list price, and inventory of houses in these cities using data from Zillow, Redfin, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Using difference in differences methodology, I find the policies have not had a significant impact, even when accounting for lags in the housing market. It is concluded that the policies are not effective and have had no effect on the negative impacts home-sharing has on the housing market.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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