Is There a “Scarlet E”? Effects of Public Eviction Records on Low-Income Households [link] (with Alison Lodermeier, Grace Ortuzar, and Stephen Stapleton)
Housing advocates, media outlets, and policymakers have long argued that a public eviction filing record—often referred to as the “Scarlet E”—carries significant consequences, particularly for low-income households. In this paper, we exploit variation induced by a record-sealing policy in Illinois to provide the first causal estimates of the effect of a public eviction filing on residential mobility, neighborhood quality, homelessness, and financial health. Two findings stand out: (i) sealing eviction records at the time of filing prevents tenant screening companies from accessing case information, whereas retroactive record sealing is ineffective in restricting public access; (ii) tenants with public eviction records are more likely to live doubled up with friends or family within the first year of the filing. Our results suggest that housing instability due to public eviction filings manifests primarily through households doubling up rather than through more extreme forms of homelessness.
The Effect of Rezoning on Local Housing Supply and Demand: Evidence from New York City [link]
Regional Science and Urban Economics (February 2026)
Housing affordability has continued to be a great challenge that many cities face in the United States, and some local governments try to tackle this issue by relaxing land-use regulations and increasing allowed residential density. This type of “upzoning” policy aims to increase housing supply and lower local housing costs, but it can also create positive amenity effects that attract high-income households to the neighborhood. In this paper, I study the neighborhood-scale upzonings in New York City between 2004 and 2013 using a difference-in-difference method. I construct a parcel-level dataset by combining zoning amendment maps with microdata tracking individual address histories. By exploiting the plausibly exogenous boundaries of upzoned areas, I compare the upzoned areas and their immediate surrounding areas outside the upzoned boundaries. I find that housing supply increases after upzoning, but there is also suggestive evidence of increased housing prices among existing properties on parcels with substantial increase in residential capacity. I also find that incumbent residents living in upzoned areas are more likely to move to a different neighborhood or leave New York City, but they are not more likely to move to lower-income areas. Finally, there is evidence that after the upzoning, in-migrants come from slightly higher-income neighborhoods. These results suggest that in this context, upzoning can both increase housing supply and change the composition of local residents.
Moving Back: Demographic Differences in Boomeranging to Parents and Implications for Intergenerational Disadvantage [link] (with Sewin Chan and Katherine O’Regan)
Journal of Urban Affairs (March 2025)
We exploit the large scale of the American Community Survey to examine the extent of boomeranging among young adults (YAs) and the quality of their destination parental locations. We find that as a share of YAs who move, boomerang rates are higher among more disadvantaged groups by race/ethnicity, education, recent marital dissolution, and employment disruption. Boomerangs are more likely to come from metropolitan areas with high unemployment and low average earnings; among cross-metro moves, boomerangers disproportionately land in higher unemployment and lower earnings metros than their origin. A synthetic cohort analysis suggests that Black and Hispanic YAs, and those from lower socioeconomic status families, face weaker labor markets and opportunities when boomeranging. To the extent that these disadvantages are not offset by parental support, our results suggest another channel through which racial and socioeconomic disparities can be perpetuated.
“High-Resolution Mobility Data Reveals a Stalling of Racial Integration in New York City During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (with Ingrid Gould Ellen and Amrita Kulka)
“Accessibility of America’s Housing Stock: Analysis of the 2011 American Housing Survey” (with Luke Bosher, Sewin Chan, Ingrid Gould Ellen, and Brian Karfunkel). U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of Policy Development and Research, 2015.