Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation

Fischel’s new book is the definitive work on the economics of land-use regulation. In an engaging manner, Fischel lays out the history, motivation, structure, and impact of land-use regulation in the United States. It’s all here.

WALLACE E. OATES
DISTINGUISHED UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, EMERITUS
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Everyone who cares about American cities and metropolitan areas—and the laws that shape their development—should read this excellent book. The fact that Fischel conveys his encyclopedic knowledge on a subject that is routinely considered too technical or too theoretical in such a clear, engaging, and accessible way is an additional delight to the reader.
SONIA A. HIRT PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN STUDIES, VIRGINIA TECH

Written with wit and insight, Zoning Rules! provides the most persuasive economic, political, and legal account of how Americans control their most important personal investment—their home—by treating zoning as a collective property right. Zoning Rules! is both an accessible primer on local government law and politics for the layperson, and an exposition of a sophisticated political and economic theory about neighbors’ capacity to be a potent political force, shaping everything from taxes and environmental quality to schools and demography of American communities.
RODERICK HILLS WILLIAM T. COMFORT III PROFESSOR OF LAW
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Zoning Rules! is much more than an update of Fischel’s 1985 classic, The Economics of Zoning Laws. An important addition, so relevant to today’s world, is his discussion of zoning as a mechanism for controlling suburban growth. Fischel deals with this topic and others in the same style that his readers have come to expect. He is a scholar, first and foremost, but he also knows how to tell a good story. My students will love this book!
JON SONSTELIE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA

Bill Fischel’s latest zoning masterwork is a wake-up call for an American public lulled into mass acceptance of zoning as an invisible hand. Fischel unfolds the many faces and consequences of zoning as a product of our own doing, showing that this American institution needs to be wrestled to the ground. The good news? We-the-people have the power to change it. This book is a necessary primer for plotting a realistic strategy.
EMILY TALEN PROFESSOR OF URBAN PLANNING
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY