Laws meant to stop Airbnb are actually helping big-time landlords kill off the competition from regular people renting out a spare room.
March 27, 2026
Original Paper
The Economic Impacts of Short-term Rentals and Regulations: <br> A Literature Review
SSRN · 6349338
The Takeaway
While intended to protect housing markets, these laws create compliance costs and red tape that only large-scale professional operators can afford to navigate. This unintentionally clears out the 'mom and pop' competition and professionalizes the industry, which explains why housing prices and rental nuisances often persist even after strict laws are passed.
From the abstract
This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the economic impacts of short-term rental (STR) platforms and the regulatory responses they have prompted. Following PRISMA guidelines, we identify 429 papers and synthesize evidence across four domains: housing markets, local economies, tourist accommodation, and neighborhood dynamics. STR constitute a simultaneous multimarket entry that generates efficiency gains alongside distributional consequences and neighborhood externalities. I