European Business Schools Librarian's Group
Department of Economics Working Papers,
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics
Housing Rent Dynamics and Rent Regulation in St. Petersburg (1880-1917)
Konstantin A. Kholodilin (), Leonid E. Limonov () and Sofie R. Waltl ()
Additional contact information
Konstantin A. Kholodilin: DIW Berlin and Leontief Centre
Leonid E. Limonov: National Research University - Higher School of Economics and Leontief Centre
Sofie R. Waltl: Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research and Vienna University of Economics and Business - Department of Economics
Abstract: This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917 covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from historic newspapers, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced as a response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: while before the regulation rents were increasing at a similar rapid pace as other consumer prices, the policy reversed this trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability among workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the prevailing problems.
JEL-codes: C14; C43; N93; O18 February 2019
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