Speaker:
Prof. Arnab Dutta, Assistant Professor, Department of Real Estate and Construction, HKU

Prof. Arnab Dutta is an urban economist and planner. He researches land use and housing regulations, informal housing, migration, climate change, and inequality in the context of developing countries. He is an Assistant Professor in the HKU Faculty of Architecture’s Department of Real Estate and Construction. Prof. Dutta completed his Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Southern California.

Abstract:

Academics researching urban and housing issues have theorized that more stringent land use regulations increase the prevalence of informal housing through reduced housing affordability. Recent empirical research has confirmed this hypothesis within the context of countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Indonesia. These issues are, however, global in nature. This paper empirically investigates whether tighter land use regulations and their stricter enforcement lead to more informal land use with a global sample of over 150 cities observed between 1990 and 2015. The key findings show that a standard deviation point higher regulatory and enforcement stringency increases informal land use by over 100%. A spatial instrumental variable strategy is used to address potential endogeneity concerns. This research paper is coauthored with Prof. Eric Heikkila from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) and Prof. Cynthia Goytia from the Torcuato Di Tella University (Buenos Aires).