AP Economics @RutgersU. Previously: @FurmanCenterNYU. Public, Urban and Housing. PhD @MITEcon.
Jersey City
Joined March 2021
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🚨 Excited to share that my work w/ @lorenz_06, “Knocking it Down and Mixing it Up: The Impact of Public Housing Regenerations” found a home at @restatjournal.
We study the impact of converting distressed public housing into mixed-income housing on local housing markets. 🧵👇1/9
Replacing distressed public housing with mixed-income housing raises local prices & improves local amenities. Just Accepted new paper by Hector Blanco @_Hector_Blanco and Lorenzo Neri @lorenz_06 zurl.co/YyIqS
Hector Blanco retweeted
Where in America can new homes get permitted and built fastest? And are we getting faster or slower over time?
In a new paper with @leonardo_damico and Audrey Wang, we show cities like Raleigh typically *finish* construction before cities like San Francisco even approve it.
Hector Blanco retweeted
New paper in the Review of Economics and Statistics available early access, on 1960s insurance policy and its effects on housing (dis-)investment and neighborhoods, with Ingrid Ellen, Dan Hartley, and Wei You. 1/
Hector Blanco retweeted
🛣️ 🌆 How do the quality of life costs of highways vary across cities? In a new review article (forthcoming at RSUE), Brinkman and I expand our Freeway Revolts methodology across US metropolitan areas.
Hector Blanco retweeted
The 18th Conference on Urban and Regional Economics (CURE) will be October 9–10 at Columbia University.
Submission deadline is July 25: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
Hector Blanco retweeted
A ver, sobre el famoso gráfico de los visados de obra nueva que habéis visto tantas veces, necesitáis que un arquitecto urbanista os de un poco de contexto. No me extenderé mucho, pero quiero que veáis por qué no se está pudiendo construir tanta obra nueva como nos gustaría 👇🧵
Hector Blanco retweeted
Forthcoming in AEJ: Applied Economics: "There Goes the Neighborhood? The Local Impacts of State Policies that Override Municipal Zoning" by Hector Blanco and Noémie Sportiche. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.12…
Hector Blanco retweeted
Submit you housing papers: Cities, Housing, & Society — a one-day conference at Harvard on Aug. 27, 2026.
We welcome policy-relevant housing research across urban, public, labor, real estate, IO, political economy & macro.
Deadline: May 1. Submit here:
diamondr.github.io/cities-ho…
Hector Blanco retweeted
🚨 LAST CALL 🚨
#CallForPapers for the 8th Workshop on #UrbanEconomics
📌 Deadline: March 15th ‼️
📅 June 17-18, 2026
📍 Barcelona
Keynote speakers:
🗣️ Gabriel @Ahlfeldt (@HumboldtUni)
🗣️ Lu Han (@UWMadison)
Info👉 f.mtr.cool/tmoiwjznil
Hector Blanco retweeted
Next #IEBSeminars 👉 "New Deal Public Housing and Racial Segregation in U.S. Cities"
🎙️ @_Hector_Blanco (@RutgersU)
📅 Tuesday, March 10th
🕝 14:30h (CET)
ℹ️ Details: f.mtr.cool/vtwjjwolqn
Hector Blanco retweeted
New paper (w/ Jon Gruber): What’s a building permit worth? And what can we learn about the importance of de-facto regulatory burdens versus de-jure constraints in housing development? We study these questions using a new setting: the market for land with preapproved permits.
Hector Blanco retweeted
¿Sabéis qué es lo bueno de la economía aplicada a las políticas públicas? Que toma una medida y se pregunta "oye, esto qué efectos va a tener REALMENTE".
El Comité asume que el DESEO basta para que el objetivo se cumpla.
Pero si abres tu mente, admites que el mundo es complejo y la gente decide de manera autónoma a tu deseo normativo, en seguida verás que una medida como esta tendría serios efectos negativos:
→ Si solo puede comprar quien entra a vivir, el mix de gente que llega a un barrio o a una ciudad corresponderá con quien puede comprar: clase media en adelante, no migrantes.
→ Quien se plantea comprar para alquilar a largo plazo (alguien me tiene que explicar muy despacio por qué esto sería "especular": ¿no queremos favorecer esta oferta?) no podrá hacerlo.
→ Es un "mira mejor no vengas" a quien se plantee construir para alquilar, o rehabilitar grandes bloques, o en general invertir en movilizar parque de vivienda.
Las respuestas habituales a estas objeciones tienen el mismo pecado original:
🤬 "Pues regularemos quién puede comprar". Buena suerte haciendo eso y que la oferta no se vaya a pique por falta de incentivos para vender.
💵 "Daremos ayudas a la compra para los perfiles más vulnerables". Imaginad la captura de este dinero por parte del vendedor si la oferta no puede responder creciendo (construyendo).
🏛️ "Que compre el Estado". ¿Todo lo que salga a la venta (que no será mucho en estas condiciones)? ¿Con qué dinero/a qué precio? ¿Por qué este uso es superior a simplemente inversión en vivienda nueva de la que claramente hay déficit?
Esto es lo bueno de la economía. Que te devuelve los pies al suelo. Y, si quieres, desde ahí puedes caminar hacia tu objetivo pisando sobre firme.
ÚLTIMA HORA | El comité de expertos de la Generalitat avala limitar la compra especulativa de viviendas en Catalunya eldiario.es/catalunya/comite…
Hector Blanco retweeted
Of potential interest to UEA members:
Call for Papers – IEB 8th Workshop on Urban Economics
Barcelona, June 17–18, 2026
Keynotes: Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Lu Han
Submission deadline: March 15, 2026
Details: ieb.ub.edu/wp-content/upload…
Hector Blanco retweeted
Why are many U.S. cities building less? Why have they insisted on a "thicket" of regulations that make housing hard to build?
In a new #jobmarketpaper with @beau_bressler , I study how much of the answer lies with a forgotten federal program that taught cities to restrict growth
Hector Blanco retweeted
My coauthor Tate Twinam and I have a new NBER working paper: “Shutting Down Japantown: The Effects of WWII Internment on Japanese Enclaves.”
nber.org/papers/w34510
During WWII, the U.S. government incarcerated all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast (the “exclusion zone”) in internment camps. While there is a large literature on how internment affected the internees themselves, far less is known about what happened to the Japantowns and Little Tokyos they left behind. Were these neighborhoods repopulated by other minority groups? Or did Japanese Americans return and rebuild their historic enclaves?
We digitize enumeration-district maps from the 1940 and 1950 censuses for 14 cities (representing newly every city with a significant Japanese population) and use them to track racial composition changes across thousands of neighborhoods.
We find: The locations of Japanese enclaves proved remarkably resilient. But historic West Coast Japantowns lost 25–50% of their prewar Japanese American populations. The vacancies created by internment were filled almost one-for-one by Black households. Enclaves outside the exclusion zone boomed, gaining roughly 0.8 Japanese Americans for every Japanese American who was already there. These new enclaves, however, remained smaller than their West Coast predecessors.
Hector Blanco retweeted
Spatial JMCs: Each year, I compile a list of spatial-economics job-market papers. To make sure you're on my list (& save me some work), please reply with your info in the following format:
Firstname Surname (School) - JMP title - homepageURL
[Trade JMCs: reply to other tweet]
Hector Blanco retweeted
Local control over zoning is a government failure, because restrictive zoning imposes a negative externality on non-residents who are priced out. Higher-level governments need to set zoning policy to internalize the externality.
Hector Blanco retweeted
📢 Call for Small Grant Proposals 📢
Measuring the causal effect of a policy change and seeking to measure its Marginal Value of Public Funds? Apply for an Early Career Scholars Grant @policyimpacts to support your work:
policyimpacts.org/announceme…
Hector Blanco retweeted
🚨NEW RESULTS (w/ @cailin_slattery & @WNober)
- When gov't engineers retire, highway projects cost more: the engineers pay for themselves 6 times over
- Improving gov’t engineer quality from the 25th to 75th percentile reduces costs by 14%, equal to 3x avg. engineer pay
Hector Blanco retweeted
🚨 Our working paper The Price of Silence is out!
Thrilled that @el_pais featured our research on noise & housing prices. Great to see our work making an impact beyond academia!
📰 Article (in Spanish): shorturl.at/rLBYC
📄 WP: shorturl.at/MheQ4
With @marimagagno
📃 IEB #WorkingPaper 2025/10 on #Cities: “The Price of Silence”
By ✍️ Marianna Magagnoli (@marimagagno) and Filippo Tassinari (@FilippoT7)
🧵⬇️