Job creation and housing construction: Constraints on metropolitan area employment growth

Differences in the supply of housing generate substantial variation in house prices across the United States. Because house prices influence migration, the elasticity of housing supply also has an important impact on local labor markets. I assemble evidence on housing supply regulations and examine their effect on metropolitan area housing and labor market dynamics. Locations with relatively few barriers to construction experience more residential construction and smaller increases in house prices in response to an increase in housing demand. Furthermore, housing supply constraints alter local employment and wage dynamics in locations where the degree of regulation is most severe.     

“大盘”基础设施配置问题的制度解析——以“华南板块”为例

在我国快速城市化的背景下,“大盘”已成为城郊一种典型的空间拓展模式；伴随巨大收益,其带来的基础设施配置问题不容小视.本文以广州“华南板块”为研究对象,指出“大盘”开发商主导基础设施配置的问题所在,运用新制度经济学的分析工具,剖析问题的制度成因,并提出相应对策.试论“大盘”开发商主导基础设施配置是其理性选择的结果,而问题...     

The regulatory tax and house price appreciation in Florida

Much attention was given to the soaring price of housing that took place in different parts of the country in the 1990s and the first half of the current decade. Traditional explanations for the increase include rising land values and costs of construction, but a strand of literature, popularized by Glaeser et al. [Glaeser, Edward L., Gyourko, Joseph, Saks, Raven, 2005a. Why have housing prices gone up? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper #11129; Glaeser, Edward L., Gyourko, Joseph, Saks, Raven, 2005b. Why is manhattan so expensive? Regulation and the rise in housing prices. The Journal of Law and Economics 48(2)], has looked at the role of land use regulations and posits that complying with them imposes a regulatory tax on housing consumers. In this paper, we apply and extend Glaeser and Gyourko’s methodology in order to estimate the regulatory tax on an individual house level in a set of Florida metropolitan areas. Our novel data address some of the quality measurement concerns raised about the Glaeser and Gyourko methodology and allow us to look at the evolution of the regulatory tax over a 10-year period. We find that the tax is an important component of sales price and that as a percentage of sales price has increased in a majority of Florida’s MSAs. In addition, we decompose the overall house price increase into land, materials and regulatory components and find that increasing stringency in the regulatory environment within Florida represents a substantial portion of the run-up in house prices in most metropolitan areas.     

LAND MARKETS AND THE EFFECT OF REGULATION ON FORMAL-SECTOR DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN INDONESIA

Until recently, urban land and housing markets in Indonesia seemed to function well. Informal-sector development provided low-income housing affordably. Through government programs, formal-sector developers could build housing for all but the poor. Since 1989, however, daily conversation pictures land speculation as rampant and formal-sector housing as rising beyond the means of the middle class. Newspapers carry stories of conflicts between small landowners and large developers with government officials in between. This article investigates this situation by addressing two related questions: are urban land prices rising “too fast?”; how do land regulations and development practices affect costs, and who pays these costs? The article includes quantitative estimates of urban land prices, changes in urban land supply, movement of land through the permitting process, and the effect of development regulations on costs. Data come from a literature survey and interviews of some of the largest formal-sector developers in Indonesia. A principal finding concerns a development regulation called a “location permit” and the “social function” of land in Indonesian law. Although helpful as a means of assembling land in Indonesia's highly fragmented land markets, location permits allow formal-sector developers to hold land off the market and pay low prices to small landowners. Ultimately, the “social function” of land under Indonesian law holds down the price formal-sector developers pay for land, but not at the price at which they sell their product. The article concludes by proposing reforms to the regulatory process.     

Firm value,the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and cross-listing in the U.S., Germany and Hong Kong destinations

This paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on the value of firms and on the cross-listing choice of firms destined to three major markets in North America, Asia and Europe. We use dynamic panel data methods and treatment effects methods and find that Sarbanes-Oxley has had a negative impact on the value of firms worldwide. Our evidence indicates that Sox may have segmented markets, with many lower valued firms destined to Hong Kong, thus crowding out the market where regulation is more stringent.     

Intra-metropolitan shifts in labor demand and the adjustment of local markets

I offer new evidence on the adjustment of local labor markets to geographic shifts in labor demand within US metropolitan areas using a unique data set in which metropolitan subregions are geographically matched across the 1970–1980 and 1980–1990 decades. The evidence uncovered paints the following picture. Workers, especially those with less education, make incomplete adjustments within metropolitan areas in response to intra-metropolitan demand shifts. Although blacks may not make especially limited adjustments, they have disproportionately suffered deleterious effects from job movements because the demand shifts have tended to be away from their places of residence.     

A comparative analysis of factors influencing the socioeconomic impacts of electric generating facilities

In recent years electric generating facility developments have become the foci of extensive controversy and resulting project delays, due in part to uncertainties and unknowns pertaining to a broad range of socioeconomic impacts which may occur. Unfortunately, socioeconomic impact research has not resolved many of these unknowns. Case study research findings have generally provided little new knowledge as to socioeeonomic impact dimensions and their causes. This paper attempts to avoid some shortcomings of prior research via a comparative analysis of some socioeconomic impact dimensions as they occurred in a sample of U.S. electric generating facilities. The paper focuses on an investigation of factors which may influence the extensiveness of developmentinduced local impacts. Both facility characteristics and characteristics of the locale which hosts facility development are suggested as possible impact determinants. Using correlational and regression procedures, expectations regarding the effects of facility size, construction time, distance to a metropolitan center, local population density and growth rates, and local labor force characteristics on overall “community service” impacts are examined. Results indicate both consistency and inconsistency with prior research conclusions, and suggest that some characteristics of the development and the development area are important in projecting the likely levels of some facility-induced socioeconomic impacts.     

Income taxes and the destination of movers to multistate MSAs

We examine how differences in state income tax rates, as well as other state and local taxes and public service expenditures, influence the choice of state of residence for households (federal tax filers) moving into multistate metropolitan areas (MSAs) using data from the IRS on the migration of taxpayers. MSAs that are on borders provide a spatial discontinuity—discrete differences in state tax rates within a single labor market. These MSAs allow residents to live in one state and work in another state. We find that differences in state income tax rates have a significant impact on the relative rate of migration to the states within an MSA. However, contrary to what would be expected, this impact is only significant in MSAs in which the filing state is based on employment (states without reciprocity) and not for those states in which the filing state is the state of residence (states with reciprocity). In MSAs where states do not have reciprocity agreements, a difference of ten percent in tax rates leads to a 4.1 percent difference in the relative rate of incoming taxpayers. Analogously, we find that a ten percent difference in state tax rates in these MSAs results in a 3.3 percent difference in the rate of tax base inflow (AGI). Our results suggest that one reason that differences in state income taxes appear to have more impact in multistate MSAs without reciprocity is that only relatively large differences in state income tax rates have any impact on migration and these differences are much more pronounced in MSAs without reciprocity.     

Capital-land substitution in urban housing: A survey of empirical estimates

Recent empirical studies of capital-land substitution in urban housing are examined to determine the best estimate of the elasticity of substitution parameter σ. Studies based upon a cross section of metropolitan areas produce a rather narrow range for σ. Studies of individual metropolitan areas produce a wide range of estimates for σ, suggesting that a may vary across metropolitan areas. However, all estimates of σ are probably biased toward zero by errors in the measurement of land values.     

我国大都市区集聚与扩散的空间计量分析——基于空间面板数据

随着"疏散化"趋势的到来,我国大都市地区所呈现的集聚与扩散趋势逐渐明显。以我国128个大都市区为例,对其经济发展在空间上的集散特征进行空间自相关分析。全局莫兰指数表明,2000年至2017年我国大都市区经济发展整体上呈现显著的集聚特征,但是集聚程度呈现下降的趋势。从东中西和东北地区角度看,东部地区和东北地区均具有显著的扩散趋势,但是原因不同;中部大都市区的集聚程度具有下降的趋势;而西部大都市区具有显著集聚上升的趋势。空间计量分析结果表明,城市化率、人口规模和城镇居民人均可支配收入水平均对大都市区的经济增长率具有显著的空间正向关系,且居民人均收入水平对城市经济增长率的影响程度最大,大都市区之间经济发展的空间溢出效应较为显著,经济发展水平较高的大都市区辐射带动作用较强。最后,从顺应大都市区发展趋势、因地制宜制定城市发展规划以及合理分布人口规模和提高居民收入水平三个角度提出对策建议。     

The Structure of Sprawl: Identifying and Characterizing Employment Centers in Polycentric Metropolitan Areas

This paper applies a consistent framework to four comparably sized metropolitan areas to identify and characterize their employment centers. Employment centers are identified as places that exceed a threshold employment density and a threshold employment level. They are also characterized as specializing on the basis of location quotient analysis. We find clear evidence of specialization in every employment center in the four metropolitan areas studied. Our interpretation is that what we are observing is a systematic change in metropolitan structure rather than a random sprawling of firms. We also find some evidence that the size distribution of employment centers follows the rank-size rule. This suggests that there is structure not only in the distribution of economic activity among the employment centers but also in their size distribution. Because less than 50 percent of metropolitan employment is within employment centers, future research should focus on understanding the more diffuse employment patterns. The rank-size rule gives some guidance as to the expected size distribution of employment throughout the metropolitan area.     

Metropolitan patenting, inventor agglomeration and social networks: A tale of two effects

We investigate the separate effects on metropolitan patenting of inventor agglomeration and the structure of social networks linking inventors within and across metropolitan areas in the United States between 1977 and 2002. Using patent data we have been able to assign a metropolitan location to individual inventors, link inventors who have co-authored patents, and characterize the structural features of the networks linking inventors. Our main question concerns the relative importance of salient features of the social networks linking inventors on metropolitan patenting productivity. We find that agglomerative features of metropolitan areas are more important determinants of metropolitan patenting productivity than structural feature of the inventive networks. While the aggregation of isolated inventors correlates positively with patenting productivity, density of connections correlates negatively.     

The causes and consequences of land use regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston

Over the past 30 years, eastern Massachusetts has seen a remarkable combination of rising home prices and declining supply of new homes, which doesn't appear to reflect any lack of land. In this paper, we examine the increasing number of land-use regulations in Greater Boston. These regulations vary widely over space, and are hard to predict with any variables other than historical density levels. Minimum lot size and other land use controls are associated with reductions in new construction activity. These regulations are associated with higher prices when we do not control for contemporary density and demographics, but not when we add these contemporaneous controls. These results are compatible with economic theory, which predicts that production restraints on a good won't increase the price of that good relative to sufficiently close substitutes. Current density levels appear to be too low to maximize local land values.     

政策不确定与审计师选择——基于省委书记更替的经验证据

考察省委书记更替带来的政策不确定性对审计师选择的影响。研究发现,省委书记更替时,事务所会提高审计质量,倾向于委派经验更丰富的审计师,尤其是拥有合伙人身份和执业经验丰富的审计师。省委书记更替对审计师选择的影响在国有企业、低市场化进程以及高盈余操纵的公司更为显著。进一步研究发现,事务所更可能对省级国有企业委派经验丰富的审计师,尤其是第一顺位的签字审计师。     

Urban Wages and Labor Market Agglomeration

Using the 5% public use micro sample of the 1990 U.S. census, we find that observationally equivalent workers in the manufacturing sector earn higher wages when they are in urban labor markets that have a larger share of national or metropolitan employment in their same occupation and industry groups. Quantitatively, the effect is large, with an elasticity (measured at the means) of between 1.2 and 3.6 for these effects. We interpret the willingness of firms to pay more for equivalent workers in dense markets as evidence of an agglomeration economy in urban labor.     

Unintended consequences of child care regulations

The effects of regulations governing staff-child ratio, group size, and staff qualifications in child care centers are estimated, using data on a sample of centers. The data contain measures of staff characteristics and wages, price of the service, and the developmental quality of the child care provided. Regulations vary across states, but may be endogenous to these outcomes. Estimates with state fixed effects are feasible because regulations vary within states by age group of children and job title of staff. Estimates with state fixed effects show that tougher regulations have some impact on input use, but have little or no impact on price and quality. The most striking finding is that tougher regulations reduce staff wages, suggesting that the incidence of child care regulations is on employees of day care centers.     

Building Permit Policy and Land Price Distortions: Empirical Evidence

This study examines the impacts of building permit policy on suburban land prices. The central premise of this study is that building permit policy may be a binding constraint and may lead to price distortions in land markets. We use a database of 354 suburban land sales to examine the impact of permit policy on land prices in 26 municipalities in a suburban county of Philadelphia. Our study offers evidence of price distortions. We find that land prices go up with planned increases in residential building permits. We also find that a progrowth building permit policy causes land prices to rise more in municipalities where developable land is scarce and vice versa.     

东京都市圈生活功能建设经验及对中国的启示

在超千万人口的都市圈中,东京在生活体验上一直广受赞誉,是全球各大宜居城市排行榜的“常客”。东京都市圈在发展过程中面对内城拥挤加剧、生活成本增高、生态环境变差等问题,从居住、休闲、生态等方面构建美好生活圈。东京都市圈以生活圈建设缓解城市问题的主要做法包括建设职住平衡和适应老龄化的“宜居生活圈”、构筑便捷舒适的“休闲生活圈”、打造高效流通的“新鲜生活圈”、塑造生态美丽的“绿色生活圈”。借鉴东京的经验,中国都市圈建设应立足高质量发展,建设“非自立”新城、实施“交通+”策略、培育都市圈外围品质生活节点、以集约方式增强经济和人口承载力为重点推进生活圈建设。     

Spillover effects of human service facilities in a racially segmented housing market

Previous studies of human service facility spillovers on residential property values have been inconclusive, and have failed to take into account the effects of racial segmentation of housing markets. Likewise, studies of racial discrimination in urban housing markets and price differentials between white and nonwhite areas of the city have failed to consider the impacts of service facilities on prices. This study develops an hedonic price model of housing services in a racially segmented housing market, which considers a variety of human service facilities and their spillover effects. Model results for Oakland, California in 1976 indicate that facilities significantly affect housing prices both positively and negatively, and that these effects vary by racial submarket. Implications of these findings for the interpretation of past discrimination studies, facility impact studies, and social policy are considered.     

The effect of land use regulation on housing and land prices

This paper investigates the effects of land use regulation restrictiveness on house and vacant land prices. In contrast to prior studies, the index of restrictiveness is treated as an endogenous variable and estimated effects are allowed to vary by market setting. Using data on more than 100 Florida cities, greater regulation restrictiveness is found to increase house price and decrease land price. Evidence is also provided showing that more restrictiveness increases the size of newly constructed homes.