AN EXAMINATION OF THE MONOPOLY ZONING HYPOTHESIS

There have been several studies that have investigated the effect of z oning on housing prices. One hypothesis is that the restrictiveness of zoning laws will vary with the monopoly power of a town. The degree o f monopoly power varies with the number of towns in the urban area. Ur ban areas with few zoning jurisdictions are likely to have higher hous ing prices than more fragmented urban areas. Previous research on this topic has shown mired results. The results in this article suggest th at towns with more monopoly power do tend to have significantly higher housing prices than more fragmented urban areas.