Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation

In this exciting new graphic novel, economist Bryan Caplan examines how changes to housing regulation can lead us to a vastly better world.

Why are housing prices in America so unbelievably high, especially in the country's most desirable locations? The superficial answer is "supply and demand," but the deep answer―the reason supply is so low―is a regulatory system that treats developers like criminals.

In Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, economist Bryan Caplan makes the economic and philosophical case for radical deregulation of this massive market―freeing property owners to build as tall and dense as they wish. Not only would the average price of housing be cut in half, but the building boom unleashed by deregulation would simultaneously reduce inequality, increase social mobility, promote economic growth, reduce homelessness, increase birth rates, help the environment, cut crime, and more.

Combining stunning homage to classic animation with careful interdisciplinary research, Build, Baby, Build takes readers on a grand tour of a bona fide "panacea policy." We can start realizing these missed opportunities as soon as we abandon the widespread misconception that housing regulation solves more problems than it causes.

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University. His major fields of interest are public choice, public finance, and monetary economics. He is the author of several books including The Myth of the Rational Voter and Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration (coauthored with Zach Weinersmith). Caplan is the editor and chief writer for Bet On It, a blog hosted by the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas. His writing has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, and the Atlantic.

Ady Branzei is a visual artist with experience in drawing, painting, and 3D animation. Previously a professor of fine arts at the George Enescu National Academy of Arts in Romania. Branzei has also participated in many art exhibitions. Working under the name Sebastian Soric, Branzei has most recently been focusing on graphic novels and other illustrated books.