Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104185
Federica Galli , Juan A. Piedra-Peña , Marie-Laure Breuillé , Julie Le Gallo
This paper evaluates the impact of inter-municipal cooperation on municipal efficiency in France. We exploit the “Réforme des Collectivités Territoriales” (RCT) law, approved in 2010, which forced municipalities to join an inter-municipal group (EIMC) by 2014. Focusing on Île-de-France from 2002 to 2019, we first compute municipal efficiency scores, accounting for intra- and inter-EIMC spillover effects. We then causally assess the impact of EIMC integration on municipal efficiency. We find that the RCT law increased municipal efficiency by 1.1% to 1.9%, with a stronger effect for early adopters and with increasing length of exposure.
{"title":"Is compulsory inter-municipal cooperation an efficiency booster?","authors":"Federica Galli , Juan A. Piedra-Peña , Marie-Laure Breuillé , Julie Le Gallo","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper evaluates the impact of inter-municipal cooperation on municipal efficiency in France. We exploit the “Réforme des Collectivités Territoriales” (RCT) law, approved in 2010, which forced municipalities to join an inter-municipal group (EIMC) by 2014. Focusing on Île-de-France from 2002 to 2019, we first compute municipal efficiency scores, accounting for intra- and inter-EIMC spillover effects. We then causally assess the impact of EIMC integration on municipal efficiency. We find that the RCT law increased municipal efficiency by 1.1% to 1.9%, with a stronger effect for early adopters and with increasing length of exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 104185"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145686030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104184
Daniel McMillen (Guest Editor)
{"title":"Urban economics issues in health economics: Introduction to the special issue of Regional Science and Urban Economics","authors":"Daniel McMillen (Guest Editor)","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104184","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104184","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 104184"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145926257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-18DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104166
Samuel Stemper
I use comprehensive geolocated data on prominent, famous, and influential Americans across various fields born throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to characterize the distribution and determinants of notability rates across the U.S. I combine this data with information on college site selection experiments — historical instances in which multiple candidate locations were considered as the sites of new colleges — to estimate the effect of college access on notability. Comparing notability rates in counties selected for a college to those in runner-up counties indicates that college placement generates a large, immediate, and persistent increase in notability rates. Analysis of Wikipedia biographies shows that roughly 10 percent of notable individuals in winning counties from eligible cohorts attended the new college. Suggestive evidence also suggests that broader shifts in county educational composition may be a potential driver of increased notability rates.
{"title":"College access and notability in the United States","authors":"Samuel Stemper","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104166","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104166","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>I use comprehensive geolocated data on prominent, famous, and influential Americans across various fields born throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to characterize the distribution and determinants of notability rates across the U.S. I combine this data with information on college site selection experiments — historical instances in which multiple candidate locations were considered as the sites of new colleges — to estimate the effect of college access on notability. Comparing notability rates in counties selected for a college to those in runner-up counties indicates that college placement generates a large, immediate, and persistent increase in notability rates. Analysis of Wikipedia biographies shows that roughly 10 percent of notable individuals in winning counties from eligible cohorts attended the new college. Suggestive evidence also suggests that broader shifts in county educational composition may be a potential driver of increased notability rates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 104166"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145579716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104165
Sven Damen , Geert Goeyvaerts
This paper examines the impact of tax subsidies for homeowners on the housing market. In 2015, the Belgian regions became responsible for the tax subsidy after having been under federal control. The average present value of the subsidies decreased significantly more in Flanders than in Wallonia. Exploiting this variation in a difference-in-differences design, we find that the reduction in the subsidy largely capitalized into the price of housing and undeveloped land while their quantities remained unaffected. These results imply that the tax subsidies for buyers are largely passed on to sellers through higher prices. The latter group is the main winner when the subsidies are introduced, but will also be the main loser when they are repealed.
{"title":"Housing market responses to the mortgage interest deduction","authors":"Sven Damen , Geert Goeyvaerts","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104165","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104165","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the impact of tax subsidies for homeowners on the housing market. In 2015, the Belgian regions became responsible for the tax subsidy after having been under federal control. The average present value of the subsidies decreased significantly more in Flanders than in Wallonia. Exploiting this variation in a difference-in-differences design, we find that the reduction in the subsidy largely capitalized into the price of housing and undeveloped land while their quantities remained unaffected. These results imply that the tax subsidies for buyers are largely passed on to sellers through higher prices. The latter group is the main winner when the subsidies are introduced, but will also be the main loser when they are repealed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 104165"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145527142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104164
Keyang Li , Shidong Su , Fan Zhang , Yanjiang Zhang
In this study, we examine the impact of owner-occupied public housing supply on private housing market outcomes, taking the Joint Property Ownership (JPO) scheme in China as an example. Using a dataset of resale private housing transactions in Beijing, we show that the opening of JPO projects for sale raises the prices of nearby resale private housing transactions by 5.7% relative to the opening of new private residential projects. Our result is not driven by the change in neighborhood composition, the establishment of new facilities, or the difference in location between JPO and private projects. Instead, the effect is consistent with the hypothesis that the JPO scheme, featured by strict purchase restrictions and shared property right ownership between the local government and homebuyers, has crowded out the supply of new private housing in local areas by creating a distinct housing market segment.
{"title":"Public housing and market segmentation: Evidence from the Joint Property Ownership scheme in China","authors":"Keyang Li , Shidong Su , Fan Zhang , Yanjiang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104164","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104164","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we examine the impact of owner-occupied public housing supply on private housing market outcomes, taking the Joint Property Ownership (JPO) scheme in China as an example. Using a dataset of resale private housing transactions in Beijing, we show that the opening of JPO projects for sale raises the prices of nearby resale private housing transactions by 5.7% relative to the opening of new private residential projects. Our result is not driven by the change in neighborhood composition, the establishment of new facilities, or the difference in location between JPO and private projects. Instead, the effect is consistent with the hypothesis that the JPO scheme, featured by strict purchase restrictions and shared property right ownership between the local government and homebuyers, has crowded out the supply of new private housing in local areas by creating a distinct housing market segment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 104164"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145442523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104160
David Cuberes , Enrique Moral-Benito , Javier Quintana
This paper uses a novel dataset and the general equilibrium model in Desmet and Rossi-Hansberg (2013) to analyze the Spanish city size distribution, which is driven by three city-specific characteristics: productivity, amenities, and frictions. Counterfactual simulations show that removing cross-city variation in these characteristics leads to welfare gains and population shifts in Spain larger than those in the U.S. but smaller than in China. Moreover, policies targeting these city characteristics consistently outperform those based on population size. For example, capping the populations of the two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, reduces overall welfare.
{"title":"Urban accounting and welfare in Spain","authors":"David Cuberes , Enrique Moral-Benito , Javier Quintana","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104160","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104160","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper uses a novel dataset and the general equilibrium model in Desmet and Rossi-Hansberg (2013) to analyze the Spanish city size distribution, which is driven by three city-specific characteristics: productivity, amenities, and frictions. Counterfactual simulations show that removing cross-city variation in these characteristics leads to welfare gains and population shifts in Spain larger than those in the U.S. but smaller than in China. Moreover, policies targeting these city characteristics consistently outperform those based on population size. For example, capping the populations of the two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, reduces overall welfare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 104160"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145415638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104163
Liliana Garrido-da-Silva , João Correia-da-Silva
We provide a full characterisation of the socially optimal allocation of urban land to households and firms in a long narrow city with centrally located amenities. Households support linear costs of commuting to their workplace, and of visiting the centre. Firms operate under monopolistic competition, having a marginal production cost that increases exponentially with distance to the centre. We compare the socially optimal urban land use with that which emerges from market forces, and propose policy interventions to achieve city-wide welfare gains. Travel subsidies to households in proportion to firms’ price-cost margin are sufficient for the socially optimal allocation of urban land to emerge as the market equilibrium.
{"title":"Socially optimal land use in a city with central amenities","authors":"Liliana Garrido-da-Silva , João Correia-da-Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104163","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104163","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We provide a full characterisation of the socially optimal allocation of urban land to households and firms in a long narrow city with centrally located amenities. Households support linear costs of commuting to their workplace, and of visiting the centre. Firms operate under monopolistic competition, having a marginal production cost that increases exponentially with distance to the centre. We compare the socially optimal urban land use with that which emerges from market forces, and propose policy interventions to achieve city-wide welfare gains. Travel subsidies to households in proportion to firms’ price-cost margin are sufficient for the socially optimal allocation of urban land to emerge as the market equilibrium.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 104163"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145473731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-22DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104162
Paul Charruau , Anne Epaulard
What determines the chances of moving up or down to better or worse jobs? We examine how local labor markets influence individuals’ socio-professional mobility throughout their working lives, focusing on large promotions and demotions. Using an empirical strategy that accounts for spatial sorting bias, applied to a sample of approximately 350,000 workers in France between 2009 and 2015, we find that job density, local human capital, and labor market size significantly increase the likelihood of being promoted to a higher socio-professional status. The effect of local factors is stronger for external promotions (outside the firm) than for internal ones. Moreover, experience accumulated in the most densely populated and educated areas continues to enhance promotion prospects, even after relocating to less dense or educated areas. This dynamic effect of promotion explains around 16% of the wage premium associated with experience in dense areas. Finally, we show that agglomerations effects on promotion are driven more by human capital externalities and proximity to other dense markets than by pure urbanization or scale effects.
{"title":"Finding a better job: The geography of socio-professional mobility during working life","authors":"Paul Charruau , Anne Epaulard","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104162","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104162","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>What determines the chances of moving up or down to better or worse jobs? We examine how local labor markets influence individuals’ socio-professional mobility throughout their working lives, focusing on large promotions and demotions. Using an empirical strategy that accounts for spatial sorting bias, applied to a sample of approximately 350,000 workers in France between 2009 and 2015, we find that job density, local human capital, and labor market size significantly increase the likelihood of being promoted to a higher socio-professional status. The effect of local factors is stronger for external promotions (outside the firm) than for internal ones. Moreover, experience accumulated in the most densely populated and educated areas continues to enhance promotion prospects, even after relocating to less dense or educated areas. This dynamic effect of promotion explains around 16% of the wage premium associated with experience in dense areas. Finally, we show that agglomerations effects on promotion are driven more by human capital externalities and proximity to other dense markets than by pure urbanization or scale effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 104162"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145362481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-13DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104159
Brian J. Asquith , Evan Mast
Local population decline has spread rapidly in the United States since 1970, with half of counties losing population between 2010 and 2020. The workhorse economic models point to net out-migration, likely driven by changing local economies and amenities, as the cause of this trend. However, we show that the share of counties with high net out-migration has not increased. Instead, falling fertility has caused migration rates that used to generate growth to instead result in decline. We use an accounting model to simulate county population from 1970 to the present and find that only 10 percent of counties would have declined during the 2010s if fertility had remained at its initial levels.
{"title":"Birth dearth and local population decline","authors":"Brian J. Asquith , Evan Mast","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104159","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104159","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Local population decline has spread rapidly in the United States since 1970, with half of counties losing population between 2010 and 2020. The workhorse economic models point to net out-migration, likely driven by changing local economies and amenities, as the cause of this trend. However, we show that the share of counties with high net out-migration has not increased. Instead, falling fertility has caused migration rates that used to generate growth to instead result in decline. We use an accounting model to simulate county population from 1970 to the present and find that only 10 percent of counties would have declined during the 2010s if fertility had remained at its initial levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 104159"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145362482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-10DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104161
Hefan Zheng , Qiuyi Wang , Keyang Li , Jing Wu
This study examines the impact of information disclosure on housing market outcomes. Leveraging an administrative housing resale transactions dataset in Beijing, we employ a boundary discontinuity design and difference-in-differences model to explore the consequences of prohibiting school-district labels in the online listing information. Our results show that the prohibition leads to a 2.44 % reduction in transaction prices and a 19.82 % increase in the seller's time on the market for the houses corresponding to the key primary schools compared with the other houses. The extended time on the market is primarily attributed to the heightened search cost that potential buyers face in finding their ideal dwellings. Moreover, the changes in buyers' search behavior and sellers' time on the market prompt the sellers to lower the listing prices to attract potential buyers and lead to lower transaction prices. Overall, the empirical evidence highlights the importance of information disclosure during the housing search process.
{"title":"Information disclosure, search cost, and the housing market","authors":"Hefan Zheng , Qiuyi Wang , Keyang Li , Jing Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104161","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104161","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of information disclosure on housing market outcomes. Leveraging an administrative housing resale transactions dataset in Beijing, we employ a boundary discontinuity design and difference-in-differences model to explore the consequences of prohibiting school-district labels in the online listing information. Our results show that the prohibition leads to a 2.44 % reduction in transaction prices and a 19.82 % increase in the seller's time on the market for the houses corresponding to the key primary schools compared with the other houses. The extended time on the market is primarily attributed to the heightened search cost that potential buyers face in finding their ideal dwellings. Moreover, the changes in buyers' search behavior and sellers' time on the market prompt the sellers to lower the listing prices to attract potential buyers and lead to lower transaction prices. Overall, the empirical evidence highlights the importance of information disclosure during the housing search process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 104161"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145332918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}