The effects of partial-coverage rent control on the price and quantity of rental housing

Rent control is widely used, but its effects are little understood. A two-sector model is provided that predicts the effects of rent control on both the price and quantity of rental housing and allows estimates of the size of these effects with limited amounts of data from jurisdictions which have controlled and uncontrolled sectors. Among other things, the model indicates the relationship between the price of rental housing in the absence of rent control and controlled and uncontrolled rent levels under a partial-coverage regime.