Unlocking amenities: Estimating public good complementarity

Abstract

, for helpful comments and feedback. Yifang Zhang provided excellent research assistance. Data and replication files available at: https://github.com/uiuc-bdeep/Unlocking-Amenities. All errors are our own. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Contextualized effects of Park access and usage on residential satisfaction: A spatial approach

“…Second, neighbourhood crime appears to attenuate the association between good park access and residential satisfaction. This result is closely in line with the recent evidence that the park premium on property prices is significantly influenced by neighbourhood safty conditions or the park-safty complementarity (Albouy, Christensen & Sarmiento-Barbieri, 2019). The park access effect (residence-topark distance  0.5 km) would diminish to zero when neighbourhood crime rate reach about its mean value.…”

Private protection and public policing

“…More recently, several studies have highlighted the importance of complementarity in the effectiveness of public good provision, specifically when crime is involved. Albouy, Christensen, and Sarmiento-Barbieri (2018) show that public safety, a private good purchased through residential choice decisions, is a complement to environmental amenities like public parks: safe parks are a public good, while unsafe parks are a public bad as confirmed by their data from the U.S. cities. Blattman, Green, Ortega, and Tobon (2017) presents evidence from randomly assigned police officers and investments in municipal services that targeted public "hot spot" policing itself is not an effective crime reduction policy, but that when paired with complementary local improvements in lighting and cleanliness of streets crime is significantly reduced.…”

Are Simultaneously Decided Referenda Substitutable? Evidence from Municipal Land Use Ballot Measures

“…Another potential explanation is that the types of public goods that anti-growth measures typically aim to provide open space, reduced congestion, and so on are less valuable when bundled together. In a recent working paper, Albouy, Christensen, and Sarmiento-Barbieri (2018) demonstrate that the joint demand for public goods may indeed be quite different than the sum of individual demands. In their application, they find large complementarities between reductions in crime and the creation of public parks.…”