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54 Brook. L. Rev. 741 (1988-1989)
Rent Control and the Theory of Efficient Regulation

handle is hein.journals/brklr54 and id is 751 raw text is: RENT CONTROL AND THE THEORY OF EFFICIENT REGULATION Richard A. Epstein* My introduction to rent control took place before I entered law school, reflected upon the role of private property in a dem- ocratic society, or learned about theories of efficient regulation. It came in 1963, during my senior year at Columbia College when I was in search of an off-campus apartment. My original quest turned up a lovely four room apartment on 111th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, ideal for me and my prospective room- mate, and a steal at $125 per month. I saw the unit but then was unable to get the superintendent to reach the building owner to close the deal. Later I was told by a wise graduate student that my naivet6 was the source of my undoing. The superintendent needed to have his palm smeared in order to make the appro- priate connection. Someone else more savvy in the ways of New York City had made the necessary side payment. Still, I was not totally defeated in my quest to escape dor- mitory living, because lucky circumstance is often a fit substi- tute for the wisdom of the streets. My parents' next door neigh- bor in the suburbs happened to own an apartment building near the college. He just had a vacancy when an elderly couple finally relinquished their rent controlled apartment to move south to Florida. The former tenants rented in 1943 for about $58.00 and that figure, with one 15 percent increase in 1953, was still the rent when, deep into retirement, they vacated in 1963. New York's rent control law at that time allowed the landlord a 15 percent increase with a change in tenant, so my lease was for approximately $75.00.1 The favorable lease did not fall my way * James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago. Columbia College, A.B., 1964; Oxford University, B.A., 1966; Yale Law School, LL.B., 1968. Stuart Sterk gave valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper. I should like to thank Sean Smith for his usual able research assistance in preparing this article. I For popular accounts of the New York City laws, see Kristof, The Effects of Rent Control and Rent Stabilization in New York City, in RENT CONTROL: MYTH AND REALI- Tins 125 (The Fraser Inst. ed. 1981) [hereinafter RENT CONTROL]; Olsen, Questions and Some Answers About Rent Control: An Empirical Analysis of New York's Experience,

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