NIMBY as Symbolic Politics
I interview David Broockman on the psychological roots of housing regulation
The final chapter of Build, Baby, Build examines the political economy of NIMBY. Does strict housing regulation exist because homeowners vote their narrow self-interest? Not really. Strict housing regulation exists because of economic illiteracy, innumeracy, status quo bias, and sheer paranoia.
Only after the book was published, however, did I learn of David Broockman’s research (with Chris Elmendorf and Josh Kalla) on “The Symbolic Politics of Housing” via this intriguing interview in The Atlantic.
The Broockman-Elmendorf-Kalla story: People’s views on housing regulation heavily depend on the kind of housing they idealize. When you ask them about what housing government should allow and forbid, they’re answering the same question as Conan: “What is best in life?”
In David’s words:
a powerful predictor of people’s answer… is just one simple question, which is, Do you like big cities? And the people who say, I like big cities, they’re like, Yes, we should build more housing in cities. And the people who say, I don’t like big cities, say they don’t.
Curious? Here’s my recent interview with Broockman on this research, as well as the general topic of the psychological roots of NIMBY. Enjoy!
There's a theory of moral psychology called Relationship Regulation Theory, created by Tage Rai and Alan Fiske, which says that morality is about regulating relationships. People are morally motivated to vote on housing issues according to the models of relationships they want to enforce and support, as well as relationship models they oppose. You should check Relationship Regulation Theory out; it has a lot of relevance to rationally irrational politics.
There's always the approach of no government regulation of housing. Let society spontaneously decide. I've met many people whose first reaction to anything seems to be "what should government do?". Some have refused to believe that private individuals and organizations ever built roads or dams. Tell them that the Air Traffic Control system had its roots in private industry, in 1929 and 1935-6, and wasn't taken over by the Feds until after WW II (my guess being the airlines wanted to offload the expense and the government bureaucrats wanted to expand their fiefdoms) and they simply refuse to believe it.
http://reason.org/news/show/air-traffic-control-newsletter-133#f