Elena Lutz

Research area

I conduct research at the intersection of urban economics, urban planning, and data science. In my work, I combine tools from economics with methods of computational urban science to study how public policies – particularly land use and transport policies -  shape economic and social outcomes in cities.

In my PhD, I evaluate how different land use and transport policies affect housing affordability, income segregation, and social networks in urban areas. For example,  I study how changes in zoning regulation 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 large administrative data sets. I also study how spatial income segregation affects turnout and preferences for redistribution in Switzerland. In a second strand of research, I use mobile phone data to investigate how better public transit access in Bogotá, Colombia, changes mobility and experienced segregation for residents of informal settlements. 

I am also a Research Associate at the Urban Economics Lab 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, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Peer-reviewed Journal Publications

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

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.

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

Work in Progress 

Zoning Regulations and Socioeconomic Neighborhood Composition 

Urban Segergation and Electoral Participation (with Fiona Kauer, Tabea Palmtag, and Thomas Kurer)

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.