The National Zoning Atlas team is out with a blockbuster paper identifying major flaws with the Wharton Index, which has historically been the tool used by economists to make claims about zoning (e.g. Glaeser & Gyourko's 2002 paper on zoning & affordability, with >1200 citations, is based on it...)
papers.ssrn.com
It's time to retire the Wharton Index
Empirical research on land use regulation has a credibility problem. For two decades, studies linking regulation to housing costs, residential segregation, and