This paper provides new evidence on the incidence of rent subsidies. We use administrative panel data on subsidy recipients in the UK and exploit a natural experiment in which entitlements were cut for about a million households. In the short-run, about 90% of the incidence of the cuts is found to be on tenants. We also uncover an important dimension of heterogeneity in the balance of incidence between tenants and their landlords. We find that the share of the incidence of the cut that falls on landlords, rather than tenants, is higher in cases where the previous system looked more generous relative to tenants’ likely housing needs. This is informative about the likely incidence of alternative rent subsidy schemes.
Authors
Deputy Director
Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, is expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.
Mike Brewer
James Browne
Deputy Director
Robert is a Deputy Director. His work focuses on primarily on the labour market, income and wealth inequality, and the design of the welfare system.
Andrew Hood
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jue.2019.103198
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- JEL
- H22, H53, I38
- Issue
- October 2019
Suggested citation
Brewer, M et al. (2019). 'The curious incidence of rent subsidies: evidence of heterogeneity from administrative data' (2019)
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