魏成《城市经济学》教学课件：房租管制的后果---摘自赫兹利特《一课经济学》.pdfVIP

房租管制的后果摘自赫兹利特《一课经济学》 /s/blog_5a640d090100ej3w.html Government control of the rents of houses and apartments is a special form of price control. Most of its consequences are substantially the same as those of price control in general, but a few call for special consideration. 政府对院宅和公寓房租的管制，是价格管制的一种特殊形式。从实质上讲其主要后果 与一般的物价管制也是相同的，但仍有几点需要特别考虑。 Rent controls are sometimes imposed as a part of general price controls, but more often they are decreed by a special law. A frequent occasion is the beginning of a war. An army post is set up in a small town; rooming houses increase rents for rooms; owners of apartments and houses increase their rents. This leads to public indignation. Or houses in some towns may be actually destroyed by bombs, and the need for armaments or other supplies diverts materials and labor from the building trades. 有的时候，实行房租管制是整个物价管制政策的一个部分，但多数时候则是通过专门 立法来规范的。这类情况往往出现在在战争初期。有的小镇因为部队驻扎，寄宿店主 提高房价，公寓和院宅的业主提高租金，于是这导致了公众的愤慨。或者，在某些城 镇，房屋事实上可能被炮弹炸毁了，而对武器或其他军需品的需求又挤占了建筑业所 需的原材料和劳动力。 Rent control is initially imposed on the argument that the supply of housing is not “elastic”—i.e., that a housing shortage cannot be immediately made up, no matter how high rents are allowed to rise. Therefore, it is contended, the government, by forbidding increases in rents, protects tenants from extortion and exploitation without doing any real harm to landlords and without discouraging new construction. 房租管制最初是以房屋供应缺乏“弹性”为依据强制实施的——也就是说，无论租金 被提高到怎样的水平，住房短缺都不可能得到立即弥补。因此，人们坚持认为，通过 禁止提高房租，政府可以保护租户不被敲竹杠、不被盘剥，同时不会对业主造成实质 的伤害，也不会打消建造新房屋的积极性。 This argument is defective even on the assumption that the rent control will not long remain in effect. It overlooks an immediate consequence. If landlords are allowed to raise rents to reflect a monetary inflation and the true conditions of supply and demand, individual tenants will economize by taking less space. This will allow others to share the accommodations that are in short supply. The same amount of housin