Lewyn on What Coase Would Do About Parking

Michael Lewyn has posted a new draft article called What Would Coase Do (About Parking Regulation)?  The abstract:

Like many government regulations, municipal minimum parking requirements exist to prevent externalities - most notably the congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that occur when motorists drive around a city searching for scarce parking. But because such regulations make parking (and thus driving) cheaper, such regulations may in fact increase congestion and pollution, thus creating, rather than reducing, externalities.

Lewyn has written widely about the effects of regulation on sprawl, and has addressed the impact of parking requirements among other regulations with respect to Houston in How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City Without Zoning).  

Perhaps we should just declare a new acronym for Coasian analysis: WWCD?

Matt Festa