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Rents Have Been Rising, Not Falling, in the Postwar Period

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  • Theodore M. Crone

    (Swarthmore College)

  • Leonard I. Nakamura

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

  • Richard Voith

    (Econsult Corporation)

Abstract

Until the end of 1977, the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) for rents tended to omit rent increases when units had a change of tenants or were vacant, biasing inflation estimates downward. Beginning in 1978, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) implemented a series of methodological changes that reduced this nonresponse bias, but substantial bias remained until 1985. We set up a model of nonresponse bias, parameterize it, and test it using BLS microdata. From 1940 to 1985, the official BLS CPI for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W) price index for tenant rents rose 3.6% annually; we argue that it should have risen 5.0% annually. © 2010 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Theodore M. Crone & Leonard I. Nakamura & Richard Voith, 2010. "Rents Have Been Rising, Not Falling, in the Postwar Period," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 628-642, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:92:y:2010:i:3:p:628-642
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Theodore M. Crone & Leonard I. Nakamura & Richard Voith, 2001. "Measuring American rents: a revisionist history," Working Papers 01-8, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    2. Elliott, Graham & Rothenberg, Thomas J & Stock, James H, 1996. "Efficient Tests for an Autoregressive Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 813-836, July.
    3. Ariel Pakes, 2003. "A Reconsideration of Hedonic Price Indexes with an Application to PC's," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1578-1596, December.
    4. David Genesove, 2003. "The Nominal Rigidity of Apartment Rents," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 844-853, November.
    5. Joshua H. Gallin, 2004. "The long-run relationship between house prices and rents," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-50, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Price Statistics Review Committee, 1961. "The Consumer Price Index," NBER Chapters, in: The Price Statistics of the Federal Goverment, pages 51-60, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Leonard Nakamura, 2014. "Durable Financial Regulation: Monitoring Financial Instruments as a Counterpart to Regulating Financial Institutions," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Wealth and Financial Intermediation and Their Links to the Real Economy, pages 67-88, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jianjun Miao & Pengfei Wang & Tao Zha, 2014. "Liquidity Premia, Price-Rent Dynamics, and Business Cycles," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2014-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    3. Jianjun Miao & Pengfei Wang & Tao Zha, 2020. "Discount Shock, Price–Rent Dynamics, And The Business Cycle," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1229-1252, August.
    4. Randal Verbrugge, 2008. "The Puzzling Divergence Of Rents And User Costs, 1980–2004," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(4), pages 671-699, December.
    5. Garner, Thesia I. & Verbrugge, Randal, 2009. "Reconciling user costs and rental equivalence: Evidence from the US consumer expenditure survey," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 172-192, September.
    6. Makoto Nakajima, 2011. "Understanding house-price dynamics," Business Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, issue Q2, pages 20-28.
    7. Robert Poole & Randal Verbrugge, 2007. "Explaining the Rent-OER Inflation Divergence, 1999-2006," Working Papers 410, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    8. Lara Loewenstein & Jason Meyer & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2024. "New-Tenant Rent Passthrough and the Future of Rent Inflation," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2024(17), pages 1-10, October.
    9. Suzuki, Masatomo & Asami, Yasushi & Shimizu, Chihiro, 2021. "Housing rent rigidity under downward pressure: Unit-level longitudinal evidence from Tokyo," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Joshua Gallin & Randal Verbrugge, 2007. "Improving the CPI’s Age-Bias Adjustment: Leverage, Disaggregation and Model Averaging," Working Papers 411, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    11. Wesley Janson & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2021. "Late Payment Fees and Nonpayment in Rental Markets, and Implications for Inflation Measurement: Theoretical Considerations and Evidence," Working Papers 20-22R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 06 Nov 2023.
    12. Randal Verbrugge & Alan Dorfman & William Johnson & Fred Marsh III & Robert Poole & Owen Shoemaker, 2017. "Determinants of Differential Rent Changes: Mean Reversion versus the Usual Suspects," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 591-627, July.
    13. Lopez, Luis A. & Yoshida, Jiro, 2022. "Estimating housing rent depreciation for inflation adjustments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. repec:fip:fedpwp:13-2 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Brian Adams & Lara Loewenstein & Hugh Montag & Randal Verbrugge, 2024. "Disentangling Rent Index Differences: Data, Methods, and Scope," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 230-245, June.
    16. Gallin, Joshua & Verbrugge, Randal J., 2019. "A theory of sticky rents: Search and bargaining with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 478-519.
    17. Ronan C. Lyons & Allison Shertzer & Rowena Gray & David N. Agorastos, 2024. "The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890-2006," NBER Working Papers 32593, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. W. Erwin Diewert & Alice O. Nakamura, 2009. "Accounting for housing in a CPI," Working Papers 09-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    19. Howard, Greg & Liebersohn, Jack, 2021. "Why is the rent so darn high? The role of growing demand to live in housing-supply-inelastic cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Marianna Kudlyak, 2012. "Housing services price inflation," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 98(3Q), pages 185-207.
    21. Ambrose, Brent W. & Coulson, N. Edward & Yoshida, Jiro, 2017. "Inflation Rates Are Very Different When Housing Rents Are Accurately Measured," HIT-REFINED Working Paper Series 71, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    22. Sonia Gilbukh & Andrew Haughwout & Rebecca J. Landau & Joseph Tracy, 2023. "The price‐to‐rent ratio: A macroprudential application," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(2), pages 503-532, March.
    23. Shu-hen Chiang, 2016. "Rising residential rents in Chinese mega cities: The role of monetary policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(16), pages 3493-3509, December.

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