Sahil Gandhi
Biographic Data
| ID | 6103199 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sahil Gandhi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sahil |
| FAMILY NAME | Gandhi |
| SIGNATURE | GANDHI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5225-4502 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Do housing regulations affect rural–urban migration? Evidence from rent control in India
Rent control influences more than housing markets. Using India—a country with heavily regulated housing markets—as a case study, we examine how shifts from pro-tenant to pro-landlord rent control and eviction laws impact rural–urban migration and labor markets. Additionally, we explore potential mechanisms to explain our results on migration. Relaxing rent control leads to higher rents and dampens rural–urban migration, while easing eviction laws…
Women’s right to property and the child quantity-quality trade-off
We study the effects of a series of state and federal reforms that granted Indian women equal inheritance rights on the quantity and quality of children. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that women who were affected by the state reforms had 0.4 more children. State reforms did not have any effect on children’s heights. To assess the impact of the federal reform, we use panel data on women and a novel treatment based on the t…
Building networks
Mutually beneficial arrangements between politicians and real estate developers are common in many developing countries. We document what happens when the politician-developer nexus is disrupted by an election. We construct a novel dataset of real estate projects and electoral constituencies in Mumbai’s municipal government. We find that an incumbent party losing the election increases real estate project completion times by 5%. We find no effect…
Infrastructure, enforcement, and Covid‐19 in Mumbai slums
This study is among the first to investigate whether patterns of access to basic services could explain the disproportionately severe impact of COVID‐19 in slums. Using geolocated containment zones and COVID‐19 case data for Mumbai, India's most populous city, we find that cases and case fatality rates are higher in slums compared with formal residential buildings. Our results show that access to toilets for men is associated with lower COVID‐19 …
Insecure property rights and the housing market
One housing paradox in many markets is the simultaneous presence of high costs and high vacancy rates. India has expensive housing relative to incomes and an urban housing vacancy rate of 12.4%. We show how insecure property rights in India, as a result of rent control and weak contract enforcement, increases vacancy rates. Using a two-way linear fixed effects panel regression, we exploit changes in rent control laws in the states of West Bengal,…
Too slow for the urban march
Decline of rental housing in India
The amount of rental housing in India has declined significantly over the years for various reasons, including the nature of the rent control laws. This paper assesses the impact of rent control for Mumbai, where it has created a shortfall in formal, affordable rental housing and contributed to distortions in the land market. The paper describes how “first-generation” rent control in Mumbai has led to deterioration of the existing rental housing …
Vulnerabilities of Institutional Checks in Indian Federalism
In developing countries, separation of powers coexists with corruption by the ruling elite. This can be attributed to informal institutions, which counter the formal checks and balances. We demonstrate, by studying the Adarsh scam, the vulnerabilities of checks and balances. Fourteen actors belonging to different tiers of the Indian federal setup who could have vetoed the project or certain permissions failed to do so.We find that 54 percent of t…
Re-thinking urban planning in India
Economics of Affordable Housing in Indian Cities
With increasing concentration of economic and commercial activities, rapid economic growth and influx of population in Indian cities, the pressure on affordable housing delivery is mounting, resulting in the proliferation of slums. For a sense of the magnitude of the problem, a snapshot view of slums in a few Indian cities has been provided in this article. Focusing on the case of Mumbai, it is estimated that at the present income distribution an…
Anatomy of Ownership and Management of Public Land in Mumbai
Mumbai is facing significant challenges in terms of infrastructure deficit and paucity of land owing to its mismanagement and stringent regulations. These problems could be resolved–through policy tweaks—if public organizations that own land, managed these assets efficiently. This would not only augment the effective land supply in the city, but would also enable public organizations to unlock the potential value of their land assets. This could …
Decline of rental housing in India
The amount of rental housing in India has declined significantly over the years for various reasons, including the nature of the rent control laws. This paper assesses the impact of rent control for Mumbai, where it has created a shortfall in formal, affordable rental housing and contributed to distortions in the land market. The paper describes how “first-generation” rent control in Mumbai has led to deterioration of the existing rental housing …
Re-thinking urban planning in India
Building networks
Mutually beneficial arrangements between politicians and real estate developers are common in many developing countries. We document what happens when the politician-developer nexus is disrupted by an election. We construct a novel dataset of real estate projects and electoral constituencies in Mumbai’s municipal government. We find that an incumbent party losing the election increases real estate project completion times by 5%. We find no effect…
Too slow for the urban march
Women’s right to property and the child quantity-quality trade-off
We study the effects of a series of state and federal reforms that granted Indian women equal inheritance rights on the quantity and quality of children. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that women who were affected by the state reforms had 0.4 more children. State reforms did not have any effect on children’s heights. To assess the impact of the federal reform, we use panel data on women and a novel treatment based on the t…
Insecure property rights and the housing market
One housing paradox in many markets is the simultaneous presence of high costs and high vacancy rates. India has expensive housing relative to incomes and an urban housing vacancy rate of 12.4%. We show how insecure property rights in India, as a result of rent control and weak contract enforcement, increases vacancy rates. Using a two-way linear fixed effects panel regression, we exploit changes in rent control laws in the states of West Bengal,…
Economics of Affordable Housing in Indian Cities
With increasing concentration of economic and commercial activities, rapid economic growth and influx of population in Indian cities, the pressure on affordable housing delivery is mounting, resulting in the proliferation of slums. For a sense of the magnitude of the problem, a snapshot view of slums in a few Indian cities has been provided in this article. Focusing on the case of Mumbai, it is estimated that at the present income distribution an…
Anatomy of Ownership and Management of Public Land in Mumbai
Mumbai is facing significant challenges in terms of infrastructure deficit and paucity of land owing to its mismanagement and stringent regulations. These problems could be resolved–through policy tweaks—if public organizations that own land, managed these assets efficiently. This would not only augment the effective land supply in the city, but would also enable public organizations to unlock the potential value of their land assets. This could …
Vulnerabilities of Institutional Checks in Indian Federalism
In developing countries, separation of powers coexists with corruption by the ruling elite. This can be attributed to informal institutions, which counter the formal checks and balances. We demonstrate, by studying the Adarsh scam, the vulnerabilities of checks and balances. Fourteen actors belonging to different tiers of the Indian federal setup who could have vetoed the project or certain permissions failed to do so.We find that 54 percent of t…
Re-thinking urban planning in India
Decline of rental housing in India
The amount of rental housing in India has declined significantly over the years for various reasons, including the nature of the rent control laws. This paper assesses the impact of rent control for Mumbai, where it has created a shortfall in formal, affordable rental housing and contributed to distortions in the land market. The paper describes how “first-generation” rent control in Mumbai has led to deterioration of the existing rental housing …
Too slow for the urban march
Infrastructure, enforcement, and Covid‐19 in Mumbai slums
This study is among the first to investigate whether patterns of access to basic services could explain the disproportionately severe impact of COVID‐19 in slums. Using geolocated containment zones and COVID‐19 case data for Mumbai, India's most populous city, we find that cases and case fatality rates are higher in slums compared with formal residential buildings. Our results show that access to toilets for men is associated with lower COVID‐19 …
Insecure property rights and the housing market
One housing paradox in many markets is the simultaneous presence of high costs and high vacancy rates. India has expensive housing relative to incomes and an urban housing vacancy rate of 12.4%. We show how insecure property rights in India, as a result of rent control and weak contract enforcement, increases vacancy rates. Using a two-way linear fixed effects panel regression, we exploit changes in rent control laws in the states of West Bengal,…
Women’s right to property and the child quantity-quality trade-off
We study the effects of a series of state and federal reforms that granted Indian women equal inheritance rights on the quantity and quality of children. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that women who were affected by the state reforms had 0.4 more children. State reforms did not have any effect on children’s heights. To assess the impact of the federal reform, we use panel data on women and a novel treatment based on the t…
Building networks
Mutually beneficial arrangements between politicians and real estate developers are common in many developing countries. We document what happens when the politician-developer nexus is disrupted by an election. We construct a novel dataset of real estate projects and electoral constituencies in Mumbai’s municipal government. We find that an incumbent party losing the election increases real estate project completion times by 5%. We find no effect…
Do housing regulations affect rural–urban migration? Evidence from rent control in India
Rent control influences more than housing markets. Using India—a country with heavily regulated housing markets—as a case study, we examine how shifts from pro-tenant to pro-landlord rent control and eviction laws impact rural–urban migration and labor markets. Additionally, we explore potential mechanisms to explain our results on migration. Relaxing rent control leads to higher rents and dampens rural–urban migration, while easing eviction laws…
Economics (11 works) · Business (8 works) · Urban and Rural Development Challenges (8 works) · Housing Market and Economics (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Finance (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (4 works) · Law (4 works)