Land use regulation: Where have we been, where are we going?

Contrary to current international, national, and regional trends of neo-liberal policy reform, government regulation of urban land use has continued to increase in many countries worldwide. This is surprising, given the plethora of recent scholarly work that suggests that excessive land use regulation may contribute to increasingly unaffordable cities. As such, this review seeks to examine the economic underpinnings of land use regulation, highlight an apparent ideological shift in the application of such regulation, and suggest future forms of research and data on the matter.