Research
Research
The Great Housing Hijack cuts through the nonsense on housing markets and policy and is now available.
My 2022 book with Paul Frijters is Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians (an update and refresh of our 2017 book Game of Mates)
Academic papers
Pricing upzoning: A reply to critics. Housing Policy Debate. 2023. With Josh Gordon.
Land as airspace: How rezoning privatizes public space (and why governments should not give it away for free). Housing Policy Debate. 2023. With Josh Gordon.
Evidence-lite zone: The weak evidence behind the economic case against planning regulation. Town Planning Review. 2023. With Peter Phibbs.
Ownership illusions: When ownership really matters for economic analysis. Real World Economic Review. 2023. With Tim Helm.
We zoned for density and got higher house prices: Supply and price effects of upzoning over 20 years. Urban Policy and Research. 2022. With Mark Limb. (free version)
A housing supply absorption rate equation. Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. 2022. (free version)
When homes earn more than jobs: The rentierization of the Australian housing market. Housing Studies. 2021. With Josh Ryan-Collins. (free version)
Land value is a progressive and efficient property tax base: Evidence from Victoria. Australian Tax Forum. 2021. With Jesse Hermans. (free version)
The Australian Housing Supply Myth. Australian Planner. 2021. (free version)
Is transparency an anti-corruption myth?. Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy. 2021. With Paul Frijters and Markus Schaffner. (free version)
Marginal and average prices of land lots should not be equal: A critique of Glaeser and Gyourko’s method for identifying residential price effects of town planning regulations. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 2021. (free version)
Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply. Journal of Housing Economics. 2020. (free version)
The City Under COVID‐19: Podcasting As Digital Methodology. Journal of Economic and Social Geography. 2020. With many others.
A theory of return-seeking firms. Australian Economic Papers. 2019. (free version)
Developers pay developer charges. Cities. 2018. (free version)
Light Rail, Land Values and Taxes. Economic Record. 2017. (free version)
The back-scratching game. Journal of Economic and Behavioral Organization. 2017. With Paul Frijters. (free version)
Clean Money in a Dirty System: Relationship Networks and Land Rezoning. Journal of Urban Economics. 2016. With Paul Frijters. (free version)
What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions. Energy Policy. 2013. (free version)
Working papers
What’s the rush? New housing market absorption rate metrics and the incentive to slow housing supply. OSF Preprints.
Do political donations buy reputation in an elite gift-exchange game? OSF Preprints.
Explainers
Feasibility guide for town planners. Henry Halloran Trust report.
Explainer: Do taxes on property cause high house prices? No.
Policy reports
HouseMate: A proposed national institution to build new homes and sell them cheap to any citizen who does not own a home. 2022. Henry Halloran Trust Discussion paper.
Scrap superannuation. 2020. Fresh Economic Thinking Policy Report (slideshow here)
Submissions to recent government inquiries
Submission to NSW inquiry into Development of the Transport Oriented Development Program, 2024
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Submission to “The worsening rental crisis in Australia” Senate Inquiry. 2023.
Submission to Senate Inquiry into the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023 and other bills (FET article here and submission document here)
Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue’s inquiry into Housing Affordability and Supply. 2021.
Submission to the NSW Housing Strategy. 2020. FET article here and submission document here.
Submission to the Review of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). 2017.
Submission to NSW Review of Infrastructure Contributions. 2020. FET article here and submission document here.
Submission to NSW ICAC review of regulation and lobbying. 2019.
Articles at The Conversation
Find them all here.
Some recent consulting reports
Buying better income taxes with better land taxes (for Prosper Australia)
Economic incidence of developer contributions (for Auckland Council)
Equity of options for funding long-term infrastructure investment (for Auckland Council)
Reimagining the economics of public housing at Waterloo (for Shelter NSW)
Three Economic Myths about Ageing: Participation, Immigration and Infrastructure (for Sustainable Australia)
Anticompetitive and outdated: The $250 million economic cost of Standards Australia’s AS1546.3:2017 (for Advanced Enviro- Septic)
Unspoken alternatives to expensive housing (for Prosper Australia)
The First Interval: Evaluating ACT's Land Value Tax Transition (for Prosper Australia)
Trophy hunters of native carnivores benefit from wildlife conservation funded by others (for Humane Society United States)
The lion’s share? On the economic benefits of trophy hunting (for Humane Society International)
Google Scholar profile
All of my published research is listed in my Google Scholar profile.