The Impact of Highways on Population Redistribution: The Role of Land Development Restrictions

Abstract

We study the role of land development restrictions for the effects of highway expansion on the spatial distribution of population. We demonstrate that these restrictions strongly interfered with the effects of highways in the Netherlands. Introducing an IV approach to address endogenous interaction variables, our findings show that new highways accelerated population growth in peripheral areas, but had no such effect in central cities and suburban municipalities. We find that due to development restrictions near larger cities, the highway expansion caused a 'leapfrog' pattern, in which suburban growth skipped developmentrestricted areas and expanded into farther located peripheral areas.

The Welfare Effects of Greenbelt Policy: Evidence from England

“…One may argue that there are aggregate effects that we do not take into account when calculating the welfare effects of greenbelt policy. For example, urban development may 'leapfrog' over the greenbelts leading to an inefficient urban structure and longer commutes (see Levkovich et al 2017, Cheshire et al 2018. If that is the case, one would expect aggregate housing prices to be lower in areas with more greenbelt land, suggesting that we may underestimate the aggregate price effects of greenbelts.…”

“…In this subsection we inspect the potential other aggregate effects of greenbelt policy. The first effect may be that urban development may 'leapfrog' over the greenbelts leading to an inefficient urban structure and longer commutes (see Levkovich et al 2017, Cheshire et al 2018. If that is the case, one would expect aggregate housing prices to be lower in areas with more greenbelt…”

Roads, market access and regional economic development

“…In China, radial highways displaced 4% of population to surrounding regions and ring roads displace an additional 20%in addition to 50% of GDP (Baum-Snow et al, 2017). Attempts to use development restrictions cause the displacement pattern of highways to "leapfrog" to peripheral areas (Levkovich et al, 2017). In addition to displacement, highways promote spatial sorting, with higher income earners replacing low-income earners at locations with better accessibility (Fretz et al, 2017).…”