ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evidence on these effects from around the world and, as usual, finds a strong degree of unanimity about the observations. Because of its great importance in Britain, the authors dwell in particular on the issue of labour immobility and review some recent estimates of the adverse efficiency effects of immobilising housing policies in Britian. The sort of changes in circumstances that occur are things like the family growing-up and leaving home; increases in the family size when children are born; the desire to take in a relative; the death of a family member; changes in income, etc. Perhaps even more than the inefficiency through the rigid use of house space is the cost to society caused by the disincentive for people in controlled dwellings to move in search of better job opportunities. Rent control in Israel during the Second World War resulted, by the 1950s, in large disparities between legal and market rents.
