In recent years, there has been a debate over the extent to which housing-supply regulations increase inequality and reduce workers access to more productive cities. This problem is formalized in a two-city model with skilled and unskilled workers to study the impact of one city relaxing land-use restrictions. Such a policy will raise welfare, but inequality and the number of unskilled workers locating in more productive cities may rise or fall. And when the policy does reduce inequality, there is a decline in unskilled workers in the higher productivity city. Inclusive zoning policies can mitigate this effect but weaken agglomeration economies. A city authority that takes into account equity considerations may prioritize more or less housing for unskilled workers than the market, depending on the degree of societal aversion to inequality. The model is extended to include homeownership and racial discrimination in the housing market. Homeowners are not necessarily harmed by less restrictive land-use policy, but racial discrimination reduces the benefits of homeownership for minority groups.

近年来，关于住房供应法规在多大程度上增加了不平等并减少了工人进入生产力更高的城市的程度一直存在争议。这个问题在一个包含熟练和不熟练工人的两城市模型中正式化，以研究一个城市放宽土地使用限制的影响。这样的政策将提高福利，但不平等和位于生产力更高的城市的非熟练工人数量可能会上升或下降。当该政策确实减少了不平等时，生产力较高的城市中的非熟练工人就会减少。包容性分区政策可以减轻这种影响，但会削弱集聚经济。考虑到公平因素的城市当局可能会优先考虑为非技术工人提供更多或更少的住房而不是市场，这取决于社会对不平等的厌恶程度。该模型扩展到包括住房市场中的房屋所有权和种族歧视。房主不一定会受到限制较少的土地使用政策的伤害，但种族歧视会降低少数群体的房屋所有权利益。