Height restrictions and housing prices: A difference-in-discontinuity approach

In this paper we exploit the enactment of a city-level building height-restriction-law in some, but not all, counties located in the largest city of northeast Brazil to investigate how restrictions to urban land-use affect real estate market prices. Using a difference-in-geographic-discontinuity design, we show that the imposed restriction led apartments (houses) to experience a significant increase (decrease) in unit prices.