Regional Science and Urban Economics最新文献

This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on the local labor markets by exploiting China’s first air pollution regulation as a natural experiment. The identification strategy uses a novel instrumental variable based on engineering considerations related to coal-burning activities. The analysis shows that the pollution regulation has led to employment decline in the targeted prefectures and sectors, mainly through the channel of firm exits. Furthermore, detailed census data with worker characteristics are used to examine the skill heterogeneity and the regulation-induced spatial transition costs.

Between 2015 and 2017, the Law of Heights (Policy-562) regulated areas of urban renewal in specific locations of Bogotá (Colombia). Using a novel dataset based on detailed information at the block level between 2008 and 2017, we study whether this policy affected real estate prices. Our empirical strategy compares the price per square meter before and after Policy-562 in treated blocks and in control blocks with similar pre-treatment traits. Results show that prices increased more in treated blocks than in the rest of the city. We also provide evidence that results are heterogeneous from a temporal, land use and strata point of view.

Recent empirical work suggests that agglomeration forces are multiple times higher in developing countries than in advanced economies, but also that these cities are crowded and dysfunctional. To understand the true productivity advantages of developing country cities, we systematically evaluate nearly 1300 agglomeration elasticity estimates from 76 studies in 34 countries. Using frontier methodology for conducting meta-analyses, we find that the elasticity in developing countries are less than 1 percentage point higher than in advanced economies, with the difference not being statistically significant. Further, we present novel estimates of urban costs in developing and developed country cities – pollution, carbon emissions, wellbeing, homicides and congestion. While the levels of urban costs and the elasticity of crime are higher in developing country cities, other measures of urban cost elasticity are not different across income groups.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of a coal bust on urban growth. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that China's 2012–2015 coal bust significantly reduced the growth rate of local GDP, especially in coal producing cities located far from the coast or seaports. This negative growth effect decreased one year after coal prices had recovered, but the level of the effect remained relatively persistent. The results of further analysis show that regional economies adjust to adverse shocks primarily through a reduction in urban employment and the exit of small and geographically disadvantaged firms, as the decrease in wages during a bust is insufficient to attract an inflow of firms and capital.

We consider jurisdictions of different population size that provide local public goods with positive spillovers. Matching grants can induce optimal expenditure levels, but the regions can exploit the rationale behind this system to induce bailouts. We formalize the too-big-to-fail result of Wildasin (1997) by proving that it exists in a subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium, in which the central government’s decisions are taken by regional representatives. Furthermore, our model contains the too-big-to-fail and too-small-to-fail outcomes as special cases, and we are the first to derive the conditions under which each result emerges.

In this paper we study how trade liberalization affects the location and the product scope of firms. We find that the largest and most productive multi-product firms concentrate to the larger market as a result of trade liberalization. In the presence of relocation costs, we also find that these firms will expand their product scope in the larger market while firms in the smaller market will contract their product scope or expand it to a smaller degree. The adjustment of firms’ product scope can therefore be a substitute for firm relocation, and the cost of introducing new varieties becomes an important parameter, that influences the degree of agglomeration.

This study empirically tests how disamenities associated with Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tracks affect public housing prices in Singapore. Residents living near aboveground rail tracks are more affected by MRT train noise than those living near underground rail tracks. Prices of public housing flats near the aboveground tracks are higher than those near the underground tracks by 3%–4% for every 1 km away from the MRT rail tracks. We use the erection of noise barriers on the selected segments of MRT tracks to mitigate noise effects as the shock in the models. The results show that housing prices increased by 2% and 3% for every 1 km reduction in distance to the segments of MRT tracks with new noise barriers after the announcement and completion of the projects, respectively. The welfare gains of the noise barrier project accrued to public housing residents near the noise-mitigating segments of rail tracks are estimated to be more than 700 million Singapore dollars.

How does an increase in immigrant inflows affect housing demand and prices for a given housing supply? In this paper, I show that we can formally decompose total demand changes into those from the immediate increase in population due to the new arrivals (the “partial effect”) and additional changes from relocated natives (the “induced effect”). I propose and apply a method to estimate these effects separately, exploiting data for Spain between 2001 and 2012. Using an instrumental variables strategy, I find that a one percentage point increase in the immigration rate raises average house sale prices by 3.3%. Partial demand estimates are 24% lower than total estimates due to immigrants and natives locating in the same provinces. The results show that accounting for the impact of immigration on native mobility is central to understanding net demand adjustments, as partial and total effects can significantly differ depending on native population relocation.

How does gentrification transform neighborhood retail amenities? This paper presents a model in which gentrification harms incumbent residents by increasing rental costs and by eliminating distinctive local stores. While rising rents can be offset with targeted transfers, the destruction of neighborhood character can – in principle – reduce overall social surplus. Empirically we find that gentrifying neighborhoods experience faster growth in both the number of retail establishments and business closure rates than their non-gentrifying counterparts. However, we see little evidence that gentrification is associated with changes in retail mix or prices — suggesting limited welfare losses.

We show that a novel pricing system can help resolve a series of perennial problems evident in the deregulated British urban public transport market that have impeded urban growth, access equality and environmental ambitions. A two-stage pricing system, with operators setting their multi-operator service ticket prices collusively in one stage and their single-operator ticket prices independently in the other, offers potential consumer surplus, profit and welfare gains over, what we characterise as, the free-market ‘Status Quo’. The proposed win–win pricing system can also support a larger number of operators and services with potential additional welfare gains. We also compare the proposed system against a multi-operator ticketing card ($MTC$) scheme, permitted in the UK under the Block Exemption. The Block Exemption allows collusive pricing on a limited basis but is due to expire and is under statutory review, making this is a timely contribution. We show, whilst the $MTC$ offers higher welfare when all regimes provide the same number of services, the proposed system can support a larger number of operators in the presence of fixed costs, which can reverse the welfare ranking in its favour. A calibration exercise indicates the market may be operating in the region where the proposed system can dominate the ‘Status Quo’ in profit, consumer surplus and welfare terms and support a larger network than the ‘Status Quo’ or $MTC$ with further welfare gains. The resulting higher public transport patronage may also offer further indirect benefits via reduced pollution, congestion and accidents. Improved transport efficiency may have urban density advantages, especially in Britain’s second-tier cities which do not tend to benefit from extensive public transit rail and underground networks, with associated agglomeration effects contributing to the current levelling-up priority. Given the salience amongst developed countries of the private aspect of urban public transport in Britain, along with an unresolved private vs public debate, this issue is of potential interest to urban planners and policymakers beyond the UK.