Elena Lutz

Research area

I conduct research at the intersection of urban planning, sustainability studies, and urban economics. In my work, I use quantitative methods, such as causal inference or computational urban science, to study how public policies – particularly land use and transport policies -  shape social and environmental outcomes in cities.

In my PhD, I evaluate how land use and transport policies affect different aspects of urban social sustainability, such as housing affordability and the economic diversity of social networks in urban areas. For example,  I study how changes in zoning regulations affect housing affordability and the local socioeconomic population composition in treated neighborhoods in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. To do so, I use historical zoning maps and linked administrative data on all buildings and households in Switzerland. In a second project, I use GPS data from mobile phone data to investigate how better public transit access in a peripheral low-income neighborhood in Bogotá, Colombia, changed mobility and experienced segregation for residents of this neighborhood. This project also aims to develop new methods for urban policy evaluation in low-data contexts in the Global South, using widely available smartphone GPS data.

In ongoing projects, I investigate the environmental and social potential of vertical building extensions as a more sustainable alternative to urban densification than replacement constructions in Switzerland. I also work on a project using mobile phone data to study how weather shocks alter the use of urban public spaces in Colombia.

I am a Research Fellow at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where I spent a year of my PhD. You can find my MIT profile here and my personal website here. 

You can also find me on Google Scholar and LinkedIn.

Peer-reviewed Journal Publications

Lutz, E., Wicki, M., & Kaufmann, D. (2024). Creating inequality in access to public transit? Densification, gentrification, and displacement. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.

Büchler, S., & Lutz, E. (2024). Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use regulation. Journal of Urban Economics.

Working Papers 

Riding to Opportunity? The effects of Bogotá’s cable car on experienced segregation (with David Kaufmann and Neave O'Clery). Draft available upon request

Housing after redevelopment: Where and to what buildings do displaced residents move? (with Fiona Kauer and David Kaufmann). R&R Urban Studies

Urban Densification through Vertical Extensions: Potential and Social Sustainability Implications (with Dominic Büttiker)

Other Publications

Lutz, E., Kauer, F. & Kaufmann, D. (2023). Mehr Wohnraum für alle? Zonenplanänderungen, Bauaktivität, und Mietpreise im Kanton Zürich von 1996-2020. ETH Research Collection. [Media coverage: Tagesanzeiger, SRF, Blick]

Lutz, E. (2020). The housing crisis as a problem of intergenerational justice: The case of Germany. Intergenerational Justice Review.