Landlord responsiveness to eviction filing fees: evidence from northern New England

US landlords file millions of evictions per year. Eviction is associated with numerous negative outcomes including economic hardship, residential instability, disrupted educational attainment among children, and physical and mental health issues. Despite the number of evictions and eviction’s negative consequences, there is little research suggesting effective eviction prevention policies. One potential way to reduce evictions is to increase the costs of eviction to landlords. This paper explores landlord responsiveness to eviction filing fees. Using data from northern New England, we find that landlords responsiveness to changes in eviction filing fees is relatively inelastic. As a result, increasing costs to landlords through higher filing fees may be an inefficient method of preventing evictions.