‘Racial Laundering?’: The Neighbourhood Consequences of Large-Scale Investor Activity in Single-Family Real Estate

Date: Thursday, March 5
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: Arts 211

Free and open to the public

About this event

Guest speaker: Motoyuki Yoshihara, Cornell University

The recent entry of institutional investors in single-family real estate provides a unique opportunity to investigate long-standing questions on the broader mechanics of discrimination. Decomposing price effects rooted in seller identity suggests the potential existence of “laundering,” where financial intermediaries can arbitrage off the racial penalties previously observed in the literature. This setting allows further exploration of mechanics in tastes for discrimination, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial intermediaries, and consequences of market power. Furthermore, counterfactuals from a dynamic structural model show how the rise of institutional investors can shape neighborhood demographics. Ultimately, the results suggest that institutional entry and its demographic consequences demand a more nuanced view than previously considered.

Info: economics.dept@usask.ca