Discrimination During Eviction Moratoria
We show that pandemic-era eviction moratoria policies exacerbated discriminatory behavior by landlords in rental housing markets. We hand-collected data on state eviction moratoria start and end dates from government mandates and merged it with data from the largest correspondence study of the rental market, including over 25,000 landlord inquiries in the 50 largest U.S. cities during the spring and summer of 2020. Leveraging the staggered adoption of the eviction moratoria, we provide evidence that African Americans were disadvantaged in the search process while the moratorium was in place. We explain these findings through the lens of a housing search model.
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