News & Events

The MIT Urban Economics Lab is thrilled to announce an opening for a Real Estate Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Center for Real Estate! We're looking for a passionate researcher to join our collaborative team focused on cutting-edge research in urban economics, housing, real estate finance, and the impact of immigration on local economies. 

Apply now through MIT Careers: Apply here

Professor Albert Saiz gave a keynote at the Sustainable Cities workshop with the World Bank. He presented his research on how the presence of natural barriers influences transportation environments and urban densities across the globe.

The paper introduces three novel indexes: the share of natural barriers, non-convexity (a measure of natural fragmentation), and the average road detour to measure and study the practical reach and effects of natural barriers around global cities. It calculates these indexes for areas in and around four separate global city-boundary definitions, augmenting the original data with relevant additional variables. 

Read the paper.

Last week, Prof. Albert Saiz presented at the ROCKWOOL Foundation Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He gave a keynote talk on the global housing affordability crisis.

Conference Website.

Natural disasters have been increasing in intensity and frequency, displacing millions of people across the globe and pushing them to seek refuge elsewhere. How does the arrival of natural disaster-induced migrants shape neighborhoods and housing markets? A new working paper by Vinicios Sant'Anna and coauthors investigates the impact of climate-induced migration on residential real estate markets in receiving areas. Specifically, the research focuses on the 1930s American Dust Bowl, a period of severe drought and dust storms that ravaged the Great Plains during the 1930s, forcing a mass exodus of residents. The paper studies how the influx of migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl affected housing dynamics in Los Angeles, the primary destination for these climate refugees.

Read the paper.

New MIT CRE working paper by Professor Albert Saiz provides an introduction to the economics of housing supply. This comprehensive study explores the critical factors shaping the housing supply in metropolitan areas, its consequences for affordability and urban growth, and discusses the methods used to measure long-run housing supply elasticity across cities

This paper offers valuable insights for researchers, urban planners, and policymakers interested in addressing housing challenges in growing metropolitan areas. 

Read the paper.

This new publication by Prof. Albert Saiz and coauthors at Nature Cities studies how the presence of natural barriers influence transportation environments and urban densities across the globe.

The paper introduces three novel indexes: the share of natural barriers, non-convexity (a measure of natural fragmentation), and the average road detour, to measure and study the practical reach and effects of natural barriers around global cities. It calculates these indexes for areas in and around four separate global city-boundary definitions, augmenting the original data with relevant additional variables. 

Read the paper.

New publication by Vinicios Sant'Anna and co-author at International Economics studies how increased trade with China impacted wage inequality in Brazil in the 2000s. The study finds that the China shock led to a 5% decrease in overall wage inequality in Brazil between 2000-2008.

Read the paper.

Is ethnic segregation driven by native flight or immigrant self-isolation? If the former, which natives avoid immigrants? Which immigrants? What is the geographic scope of homophilic residential preferences?

Our new working paper, "Immigrants and Native Flight: Geographic Extent and Heterogeneous Preferences," by Albert Saiz and Vinicios Sant'Anna, with Bence Boje-Kovacs, Ismir Mulalic, and Marie Schultz-Nielsen, answers these questions. 

Using comprehensive administrative data for the entire population of Denmark and leveraging the quasi-random nature of refugee placements, we propose a novel Arrival-Stayer Markov Instrumental Variable (ASM-IV) to generate experimental variation regarding local immigrant arrivals.

We find strong evidence of native flight, even at the building level. Flight is stronger among the older population and a reaction to the arrival of low-income immigrants. As neighborhoods become more immigrant-dense, housing prices decline, and subsequent move-ins are more likely to be other immigrants or young, low-income native citizens without children. Natives moving out of immigrant-dense neighborhoods tend to move to new homes in areas that are distinctively more "native."

Read the paper.

Our lab members Vinicios Sant'Anna and Simon Büchler presented at the CRED - MIT Workshop on Real Estate Economics at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

See the workshop agenda (here).

Three of our esteemed lab members, Binzhe Wang, Vinicios Sant'Anna, and Simon Buechler recently participated in the prestigious 13th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association in Copenhagen!

See the Conference agenda (here).

Professor Albert Saiz (UEL's PI and Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association) organized the 2024 AREUEA National Conference. The event was a great success and brought together policymakers, academics, and real estate practitioners to present and discuss the latest research in urban economics and real estate. Other two members of the Urban Economics Lab participated in the Conference, Vinicios Sant'Anna (Postdoctoral Associate) and Simon Buechler (Research Scientist). See the Conference agenda (here).

How does the presence of natural barriers influence transportation environments and urban densities across the globe?

This paper introduces three novel indexes: the share of natural barriers, non-convexity (a measure of natural fragmentation), and the average road detour, to measure and study the practical reach and effects of natural barriers around global cities. It calculates these indexes for areas in and around four separate global city-boundary definitions, augmenting the original data with relevant additional variables. 

Natural barriers lead to more complex transportation environments and are associated with higher urban densities, smaller urbanized footprints, taller buildings, and less pollution, but also with lower incomes and smaller populations. To draw meaningful policy conclusions, comparative research about environmental, economic, and social outcomes across global cities should always account for their surrounding geographies.

Read the paper.

 The Urban Economics Lab (UEL) welcomes two new members! KC Hardin and Henry Pollakowski are now Research Affiliates to the lab. KC is the chief executive officer and co-founder of the real estate development company Conservatorio. Henry is a distinguished housing and urban economist whose extensive body of work has been published in leading journals across the fields of economics, finance, and real estate. Currently, Henry is editor of the Journal of Housing Economics.

Professor Albert Saiz, First Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, is organizing the 2024 National AREUEA conference. The conference is scheduled to be held in person on Thursday and Friday, May 30th and 31st, 2024, in Washington–DC.  The conference portal is open for paper submissions until February 1st, midnight EST.

More details at https://areuea.memberclicks.net/national

How does the repatriation or expulsion of immigrants affect housing markets? 

Postdoctoral Associate Vinicios Sant'Anna's new working paper, "Send Them Back? The Real Estate Consequences of Repatriations," studies the impact of the 1930s Mexican repatriation to housing markets in the US. Using a novel automated matching technique to link houses across the 1930 and 1940 US Censuses, the paper shows that repatriating Mexicans during the Great Depression negatively affected US housing. The results suggest that repatriations have a long-lasting negative impact on housing wealth.

Read the paper.

Job Market Candidate Binzhe Wang has published a new working paper titled "From Consumer Cities to Consumer Towns? The Post-Pandemic Geography of Retail in the U.S." The paper studies how the COVID-induced working-from-home (WFH) transition has altered local shopping patterns in the US. Using mobile-device foot traffic data in 1.7 million retail establishments in 5,296 cities and towns, she finds that total consumer foot traffic remained below pre-COVID levels, while the number of active stores was almost the same as that pre-COVID. Differences across cities were mostly driven by the re-location of jobs, pointing to the importance of job-shop trip chaining. However, recovery has lagged in cities with higher African-American population shares. These areas experienced a more significant decline in both store numbers and foot traffic volumes, even after accounting for factors such as WFH exposure, population size and location, and the availability of COVID relief loans.

Read the paper.

Research Scientist Simon Büchler, and co-authors have published a new working paper titled "On the value of market signals: Evidence from commercial real estate redevelopment." The paper studies how institutional commercial real estate investors adapt their investment decisions according to tangible localized information signals provided by other peer investors. Their findings suggest that when real estate investments signal the obsolescence of the existing stock, investors are willing to pay up to 30% more to acquire a property for redevelopment.

Read the paper.

Professor Albert Saiz and Arianna Salazar Miranda have published a new article in the MIT CRE working paper series titled "Understanding Urban Economies, Land Use, and Social Dynamics in the City: Big Data and Measurement." The paper presents an overview of big data sources used in urban science and urban economics, with the goal of directing and enriching future research. Read the paper.

Professor Albert Saiz was in Bern, Switzerland, at the CRED-MIT Workshop on Real Estate Economics, giving a keynote speech about his recent paper "The Global Housing Affordability Crisis: Policy Options and Strategies." The event took place at the University of Bern, Switzerland, on August 8. Organized by Simon Buechler (MIT), the workshop aimed to stimulate the exchange of ideas among researchers and industry, contributing to understanding the current challenges in the real estate market.

Link to the paper: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4402329

Three members of the Urban Economics Lab participated in the 2023 AREUEA National Conference in Washington DC. Professor Albert Saiz (UEL's PI and Second Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association), Vinicios Sant'Anna (Postdoctoral Associate), and Elena Lutz (Research Associate) participated in this amazing conference, which brings together policymakers, academics, and real estate practitioners to present and discuss the latest research in urban economics and real estate. See the Conference agenda (here).

We are thrilled to announce that our lab's researcher, Arianna Salazar Miranda, has completed her Ph.D. and is joining the School of the Environment at Yale University in 2024. Before that, she will be a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Senseable City Lab and the University of Chicago. Congratulations!

Check out her exciting portfolio of work here: http://ariana.scripts.mit.edu/portfolio/

How to address the global housing affordability crisis? Professor Albert Saiz's latest working paper outlines the tradeoffs between different housing policy objectives of the government and the public while discussing their main caveats and advantages. The paper describes thirty different economic strategies underpinning housing policies worldwide and discusses their main advantages and caveats. Read the paper.

The MIT Urban Economics Lab is now also on Twitter. Follow us on @MIT_uelab for information on the lab's latest research, news, opportunities, & more! 

Professor Albert Saiz, participated in the 31st National Conference "Desarrollando El México Del Futuro", in Mérida, Yucatán. The conference joined an outstanding group of panelists including policymakers, academics, and industry representatives to discuss the challenges, and the innovative, affordable, and sustainable solutions that will transform the housing industry in Mexico.

Professor Albert Saiz, was elected as the Second Vice President of American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). AREUEA is the leading academic association supporting and promoting quality real estate & urban economics research across the world. The election of its officials and board members is highly competitive. This is a testament to Albert’s intellectual leadership and excellent reputation in our academic community of real estate and urban economics. Congratulations!