'Don't Try this at Home': Posner as Political Economist

Abstract

This short essay, written for a symposium commemorating Richard Posner's twenty-fifth year as a judge, examines Judge Posner's assessment of a comprehensive ordinance regulating the rental housing market in Chicago Board of Realtors v. City of Chicago. The essay suggests that Posner's reliance on the economic literature regarding landlord-tenant regulation was laudable and that the conclusions he drew from applying the economic literature were plausible. Posner's analysis of the political economy of such regulations, however, is unpersuasive, and seems to be driven by an unfortunate projection of Posnerian intuitions onto the mind of the median Chicago voter.

Keywords: Rental housing, landlord, tenant, affordable housing, Posner, political economy