% Author: Simon-Pierre Boucher — contact@spboucher.ai % ============================================================================ % UQO Working Paper No. 5 % Airbnb, Residential Rents, and Housing Market Pressure: % A Hedonic and Spatial Econometric Analysis % ============================================================================ \documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article} % --- Encoding & Language --- \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage[english]{babel} % --- Page Layout --- \usepackage[ letterpaper, top=1in, bottom=1in, left=1in, right=1in, headheight=15pt ]{geometry} \usepackage{setspace} \onehalfspacing % --- Typography --- \usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath} \usepackage{microtype} % --- Math --- \usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts} \let\Bbbk\relax \usepackage{amssymb} % --- Tables --- \usepackage{booktabs} \usepackage{tabularx} \usepackage{multirow} \usepackage{threeparttable} \usepackage{dcolumn} \newcolumntype{d}[1]{D{.}{.}{#1}} % --- Figures --- \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{float} \usepackage[ font = small, labelfont = bf, labelsep = period, skip = 6pt, justification = centering ]{caption} \usepackage{subcaption} % --- Lists --- \usepackage{enumitem} \setlist{nosep,leftmargin=*} % --- Colors & Links --- \usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor} \usepackage[bookmarks, bookmarksnumbered]{hyperref} \hypersetup{ colorlinks = true, linkcolor = NavyBlue, citecolor = NavyBlue, urlcolor = NavyBlue, pdfauthor = {Simon-Pierre Boucher}, pdftitle = {Airbnb, Residential Rents, and Housing Market Pressure} } % --- Landscape --- \usepackage{lscape} % --- Bibliography --- \usepackage[round]{natbib} \setcitestyle{aysep={}} \bibliographystyle{apalike} % --- Headers & Footers --- \usepackage{fancyhdr} \pagestyle{fancy} \fancyhf{} \fancyhead[L]{\small\itshape Airbnb, Residential Rents, and Housing Market Pressure} \fancyhead[R]{\small\thepage} \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt} \renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt} \fancypagestyle{plain}{% \fancyhf{} \fancyfoot[C]{\small\thepage} \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} } % --- Section Formatting --- \usepackage{titlesec} \titleformat{\section}{\large\bfseries}{\thesection.}{0.5em}{} \titleformat{\subsection}{\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesubsection.}{0.5em}{} \titleformat{\subsubsection}{\normalsize\itshape}{\thesubsubsection.}{0.5em}{} \titlespacing*{\section}{0pt}{18pt}{8pt} \titlespacing*{\subsection}{0pt}{12pt}{4pt} % --- Appendix --- \usepackage{apptools} \AtAppendix{% \renewcommand{\thetable}{A\arabic{table}}% \setcounter{table}{0}% \renewcommand{\thefigure}{A\arabic{figure}}% \setcounter{figure}{0}% \renewcommand{\theequation}{A.\arabic{equation}}% \setcounter{equation}{0}% } % --- Graphics Path --- \graphicspath{{../figures/}{.}} % ============================================================================ % METADATA % ============================================================================ \newcommand{\WPnumber}{5} \newcommand{\WPtitle}{Airbnb, Residential Rents, and Housing Market Pressure: A Hedonic and Spatial Econometric Analysis} \newcommand{\WPsubtitle}{} \newcommand{\WPdate}{May 2026} \newcommand{\WPversion}{1.0} \newcommand{\WPabstract}{% This paper investigates the relationship between Airbnb short-term rental activity and residential rents in Quebec, Canada. Using cross-sectional microdata comprising approximately 5,000 Airbnb listings and 8,300 residential rental listings, we employ a hedonic pricing framework augmented with spatial econometric techniques to quantify the conditional association between nearby Airbnb presence and monthly rents. For each rental listing we construct Airbnb exposure measures within 250\,m, 500\,m, 1\,km, and 2\,km buffers using Haversine distances. Our baseline estimates indicate that an additional Airbnb listing within 500\,m is associated with a statistically significant increase in monthly rent of approximately 0.3--0.5\%, controlling for dwelling characteristics, building type, and city fixed effects. Quantile regressions reveal that this association is stronger at the upper tail of the rent distribution. A complementary hedonic model of Airbnb nightly prices indicates that short-term rental pricing is driven primarily by listing characteristics, with no significant premium attached to city-level rents. Robustness checks---including alternative buffer radii, subsample analyses, and machine-learning benchmarks---confirm the stability of the rent--exposure association. We discuss the policy implications of these results for housing affordability and short-term rental regulation, while cautioning that cross-sectional associations should not be interpreted as causal effects.% } \newcommand{\WPkeywords}{Airbnb, short-term rentals, housing rents, hedonic pricing, spatial econometrics, housing affordability, Quebec} \newcommand{\WPjel}{R21, R31, L83, C21} % --- Author --- \newcommand{\WPauthor}{Simon-Pierre Boucher} \newcommand{\WPaffiliation}{% D\'epartement des sciences administratives\\ Universit\'e du Qu\'ebec en Outaouais% } \newcommand{\WPemail}{simon-pierre.boucher@uqo.ca} \newcommand{\WPaddress}{% Gatineau -- Pavillon Alexandre-Tach\'e\\ 283, boulevard Alexandre-Tach\'e\\ Gatineau, Qu\'ebec, Canada J9A 1L8% } % ============================================================================ % DOCUMENT % ============================================================================ \begin{document} % --- Title Page --- \input{sections/titlepage} % --- Main Body --- \input{sections/01_introduction} \input{sections/02_literature} \input{sections/03_data} \input{sections/04_methodology} \input{sections/05_results} \input{sections/06_robustness} \input{sections/07_discussion} \input{sections/08_conclusion} % --- References --- \newpage \bibliography{references} % --- Appendix --- \newpage \appendix \input{appendix/appendix_data} \input{appendix/appendix_methods} \input{appendix/appendix_robustness} \end{document}