Jason Sorens
Wealth Inequality Is a Result of Prosperity
“Wealth inequality does seem to be growing, but wealth is growing for the bottom 50 percent too, not just the top.” ~Jason Sorens
Does a Construction Cartel Explain Rising Rents?
“Stoller and Quintero may well be right that home-builder concentration does reduce housing supply and raise costs, but it hasn’t been proven yet, and it’s at best a minor factor compared to the zoning restrictions.” ~Jason Sorens
How ‘Equalizing’ School Finance Hurts Students and Taxpayers
“New Hampshire is the most fiscally decentralized state in the country, with about two-thirds of the total tax burden being municipal…Households have a lot of choice about where to live, and they exercise it.” ~Jason Sorens and Judge Glock
Against YIMBY Leninism
“Some people truly value restrictive land-use governance. They should be able to impose these strict rules on themselves, so long as they leave their non-consenting neighbors alone.” ~Jason Sorens
Biden’s Rent Control Proposal Poses a Real Threat to Renters and Housing Providers
“Because rent control will become part of the tax code, Democrats will be able to use the budget reconciliation process to enact it into law. That allows them to skirt the filibuster.” ~Jason Sorens
A Tale of Two States: Idaho and California
“People have continued to move away from California and to Idaho, but the main drivers have probably been less the affordability of housing and more the higher quality of life and better economic opportunities in general.” ~Jason Sorens
Unbundling Zoning
Will zoning powers inevitably be abused, and would they be reconstituted in some other form if zoning were abolished? Evidence and theory both suggest that private land-use governance could be a non-exclusionary substitute for zoning, but transaction costs in setting up alternatives to zoning are significant.
Is Texas Really the Future of Freedom?
“Texas does several big things really well, and I’m rooting for them to improve elsewhere. But let’s not pretend Texas is the free-market archetype for the country.” ~Jason Sorens
Preserve Architectural History with Incentives, Not Bans
“Removing government from the process by changing dated zoning regulations is the best path forward to solving the housing shortage. A small piece of the puzzle should be historic landmarks and district reform.” ~Jason Sorens and Thomas Savidge
Did Government Red Ink Make the US More Dynamic than Europe?
“The new ‘reshuffling’ thesis of American recovery doesn’t make much sense on the evidence. It serves a convenient political purpose, helping to justify massive federal stimulus.” ~Jason Sorens
