Urban Transport Expansions and Changes in the Spatial Structure of U.S. Cities: Implications for Productivity and Welfare

Baum-Snow, Nathaniel

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00855

Cited by 29 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Positive population effects are found for capital outlay on highways. This is in line with work by Baum-Snow (Baum-Snow, 2019;Hamersma, Tillema, Sussman, & Arts, 2014). Current operations expenditures on highways show no significant effect on population growth.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

The Economic Impact of Local Government

Jong¹

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This dissertation studies the relationship between local governments and their local economic system. It is motivated by the increased transfer of power from central and regional government to local governments. The economic effects of this increase in local governmental power remain highly debated and the empirical evidence is still mixed. This dissertation adds new insights to the debate on the economic impacts of local governments by taking a detailed empirical approach. The main research question is: To what extent, and in what ways, do local governments contribute to local economic development?Answers to the research question are provided through four chapters, which seek to empirically examine, in great and novel detail, how the structure and fiscal composition of local governments affect local economic performance.The empirical analyses start by entering the debate on decentralization, shedding a light on the economic effects of the increased transfer of power to local governments through detailed analyses. It makes the argument that the economic effects of decentralization are contingent on the quality of local governments, as well as the opposite argument, that the economic effects of the quality of local government is contingent on the degree of decentralization. Empirical analyses on European cities show that cities with high local autonomy, high quality of government, and low horizontal fragmentation are best performing. Furthermore, empirical analyses show that organizational autonomy, policy scope, discretion and vertical autonomy are most important for generating positive economic effects.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

The Economic Impact of Local Government

Jong¹

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“…Particularly relevant is a third group of studies that have examined the impact of interstate highway rays from central cities. A robust finding from this empirical literature is that these transport improvements lead to a decentralization of economic activity that is larger for population than employment, including Baum‐Snow (2007, 2020) and Baum‐Snow et al . (2017, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Suburbanization in the USA, 1970–2010

Redding

2021

Economica

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The second half of the 20th century saw large‐scale suburbanization in the USA, with the median share of residents who work in the county where they live falling from 87% to 71% between 1970 and 2000. We introduce a new methodology for discriminating between the three leading explanations for this suburbanization (workplace attractiveness, residence attractiveness and bilateral commuting frictions). This methodology holds in the class of spatial models that are characterized by a structural gravity equation for commuting. We show that the increased openness of counties to commuting is explained mainly by reductions in bilateral commuting frictions, consistent with the expansion of the interstate highway network and the falling real cost of car ownership. We find that changes in workplace attractiveness and residence attractiveness are more important in explaining the observed shift in employment by workplace and employment by residence towards lower densities over time.

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“…The share of the central city population in major metropolitan areas (MAs) in the United States fell significantly in the second half of the 20th century. This reduction has been attributed to numerous factors, including increased car use and highway construction (LeRoy and Sonstelie 1983; Baum‐Snow 2007, 2020; Garcia‐López 2010), the depreciation and filtering down of housing capital (Glaeser and Gyourko 2005, Rosenthal 2008, Brueckner and Rosenthal 2009), racial residential segregation (Boustan and Margo 2013) and issues in coordinating redevelopment (Rosenthal and Ross 2015, Brooks and Lutz 2016, Owens et al 2020). However, this trend reversed in many densely populated urban areas after 2000.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commercial‐to‐residential land‐use conversion and residential recentralization in large cities

Xu¹

2022

Canadian J of Economics

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I examine the long‐term impact of a real estate bubble on the land‐use patterns of Tokyo and Osaka from 1980 to 2003 and find that fluctuations in land prices reflected changing demand for commercial land relative to that for residential land, which, in turn, affected housing supply and residential location choices. During the real estate bubble, land developers favored commercial over residential development because the perceived productive value of commercial land increased sharply. Thus, daytime population in central cities increased and residential population fell. During the economic downturn, however, the demand for commercial space fell, houses were favored by land developers and residents were recentralized. My causal estimates show that the commercial‐to‐residential land‐use conversion can explain approximately 9% to 16% of the housing starts after the bubble burst in Tokyo and Osaka, and their populations would have been reduced by 2% to 3% otherwise. The effect is more prominent in their central business districts. My findings provide a novel explanation for the recent changes in central neighbourhoods.

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Urban Transport Expansions and Changes in the Spatial Structure of U.S. Cities: Implications for Productivity and Welfare

Cited by 29 publications

References 28 publications

The Economic Impact of Local Government

The Economic Impact of Local Government

Suburbanization in the USA, 1970–2010

Commercial‐to‐residential land‐use conversion and residential recentralization in large cities

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