Michal Hankinson will give a talk on "Breaking the Supply--Equity Trade-off: How District Elections and Top-Down Pressure Shape the Distribution of Housing in Cities" on 28 June, at 10:00 in the large meeting room (see abstract and bio below).

Bio: Michael Hankinson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the George Washington University. Michael's research shows how federalism shapes collective outcomes in housing, infrastructure, and voting behavior. Michael's research has received the Susan Clarke Young Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association and has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, Social Forces, and Urban Affairs Review. Read more here: https://www.mhankinson.com/

Abstract: Local governments struggle to site infrastructure that society needs, but few people want nearby. From housing to clean energy, this infrastructure is often built in the politically weakest neighborhoods. In contrast, district elections have been found to improve equity in the siting of housing, but at the expense of supply (Hankinson and Magazinnik 2023). Can top-down pressure from higher-level governments break this trade-off between equity and supply?  We leverage the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, which compelled over one hundred cities to switch from at-large to district elections for city council, to causally identify how equalizing spatial representation changes the siting of new housing. Top-down pressure comes from the requirement that cities report where they plan to site the increasingly large shares of housing allocated to cities by the state law. Using data from over 50 California cities, we assess whether district elections combined with top-down pressure in the form of these supply mandates can break the supply--equity trade-off and instead secure both policy objectives.

If you want to set up a meeting with Michael, please contact Martin Vinæs.

REGISTRATION FOR THE TALK IS NOT NEEDED - ALL ARE MOST WELCOME