Seminar

Past

Taxing Homeowners Who Won't Borrow

Francis Wong

  • Date8 November 2024
  • Time 11h00 - 12h15
  • Room Auditorium 4

Abstract

Using high-frequency administrative data covering millions of US homeowners, I document three novel facts about homeowner responses to property tax increases driven by rising home values. First, non-migrating homeowners cut consumption, exhibit financial distress, and do not borrow against their higher home values. These responses run contrary to the predictions of frictionless models, in which homeowners should borrow to avoid costly adjustments. Second, heterogeneity analysis shows that consumption responses do not vary by liquidity, consistent with savings target behavior. In contrast, distress responses are concentrated among liquidity-constrained homeowners. Many homeowners report being debt averse and therefore unwilling to borrow in order to avoid illiquidity and distress. Third, tax hikes induce migration—partly by displacing illiquid homeowners—but do not accelerate neighborhood change. A simple welfare framework reveals that the largest costs of property taxes arise from financial distress among liquidity-constrained homeowners.

Other seminars

Past

Tax Evasion, Exclusionary Practices, and Competition Policy

  • Seminar

  • Industrial Organization seminar

    Public Economics Seminar

  • Date 9 September 2026

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Martin Besfamille (Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile)

Details

Past

Dying Better: Hospice Care and the End of Life

  • Seminar

  • Public Economics Seminar

  • Date 11 December 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Yunan Ji

Details

Past

Competition and Innovation: The Breakup of IG Farben

  • Seminar

  • Public Economics Seminar

  • Date 5 December 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Felix Poege

Details