The Ruinous French War on Sprawl
16th September 2021
Like many U.S. states, France has conducted a war on sprawl that has had economically ruinous and socially harmful consequences, yet produced no real benefits, according to a new paper from the Institut de recherches économiques et fiscales (Institute for Fiscal and Economic Research). Written by engineer Vincent Bénard, The War on Sprawl: An Irrational Political Obsession shows that anti-sprawl policies have caused a six-fold increase in land prices and significantly increased housing prices. This represents a transfer of wealth from low-income people who rent and/or have recently purchased homes to high-income people who have long owned their homes and may be landlords of rented homes.