Valuing the Redevelopment Option Component of Urban Land Values

This study draws from the redevelopment, real option, and urban spatial growth literatures to explore the spatial dynamics of the components of house prices. More specifically, the paper proposes that the capitalized value of the option to redevelop housing at the property level can be estimated by incorporating the likelihood of exercising the redevelopment option (the probability of redevelopment) into spatial and nonspatial hedonic house price models. Accordingly, option values are estimated for properties across the spectrum of the housing life cycle. Results from the study reveal a substantial level of spatial variation and clustering in the predicted option values, indicating that location is a major determinant of redevelopment and real option values. Furthermore, the results provide new evidence in support of the theoretical construct that properties purchased for immediate redevelopment are only valued for the underlying land.     

The Effects of the Interstate Commerce Act on Transport Costs: Evidence from Wheat Prices

There is significant debate over the effect of the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) on the cost of rail transport to shippers. Taking price differences across locations as proxy for transport costs, we use data on wheat prices before and after the implementation of the ICA to see if the Act led to smaller differences in wheat prices across American cities relative to a control group of European cities. We find that the ICA had no effect on US transport costs; however, it reduced their volatility substantially. This evidence supports the view that the ICA helped stabilize cartel prices after a period of significant price wars.     

The Effect of Consumer Switching Costs on Prices: A Theory and its Application to the Bank Deposit Market

As demonstrated by Klemperer (1987), if households face a cost of switching among brands of a differentiated good, pricing is likely to be more competitive, the greater is the fraction of customers that move into or around the market. I generalize this theory to a world with arbitrary market structure and test it empirically using panel data on bank retail deposit interest rates. I find that the amount of household migration in a market has a significant competitive influence on price markups, that is, a positive effect on the level of deposit interest rates. Consistent with the model, the magnitude of this effect depends in some cases upon the degree of market concentration.     

The Effects of Charm Listing Prices on House Transaction Prices

As is the case for many different goods and services, it is common practice in many real estate markets for sellers to offer properties for sale at listing prices just below some round number price ( e.g. , $99,900 instead of $100,000). The academic marketing literature refers to this practice as "charm" pricing and suggests that this strategy is an attempt by sellers to take advantage of buyers' cognitive processes in which charm prices affect buyers' perceptions about the seller or the item being offered for sale. Although numerous papers in the housing economics literature have addressed the impact of the magnitude of listing price on observed house transaction prices, no prior published study has considered the impact of the design of listing prices in housing markets. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the effects of charm pricing on house transaction prices using sample data. The results provide some evidence that houses listed at certain charm prices sell for significantly greater transaction prices than those listed at round number prices.     

Labor Courts and Firing Costs: The Labor-Market Effects of Trial Delays

Employment protection is the result of labor laws as well as of institutional factors not encompassed in official legislation. Courts' delays in settling labor disputes are among those factors. Using individual data from the Italian Labour Force Survey (2008–2010) and exploiting the territorial heterogeneity in the duration of labor trials across Italian regions we investigate the effect of courts’ delays on the composition of employment. We find that labor courts' delays reduce the employment rate and increase inactivity of specific categories of workers, i.e., women, young, and low-skilled individuals; they also reduce the likelihood of accessing a permanent occupation and increase the incidence of long-term unemployment for the same groups of workers.     

The Hidden Costs of Accelerated Product Development

Rarely has a strategic management option captured American industry as has the thrust of accelerated product development. When accompanied by the goals of lowered cost and increased new product quality, it seems almost unstoppable. However, industry may have been swept up in the enthusiasm. Any strategic option so tempting (with long lists of advantages and no suggested limitations) needs to be viewed critically. Merle Crawford reveals several "hidden costs" of accelerated development. He does not oppose the new strategy, and indeed endorses it highly, but urges that it be considered carefully before application. His analysis suggests that acceleration is far more widely applied than is good for any industrialized economic system.     

The Asset Approach to Pricing Urban Land: Empirical Evidence

Many papers have attempted to explain Intelmetropolitan variations in the price of housing using multi-equation models of the metropolitan housing market. This paper uses a long-run equilibrium urban asset model to explain such variations. The model builds upon previous models that introduce uncertainty into the dynamic urban model of land conversion. The empirical results strongly support the asset approach to valuing land in urban areas.     

The Effects of Securitization on Consumer Mortgage Costs

We examine the effects of securitization on two dimensions of consumer mortgage costs: coupon rates and loan origination fees. We find no evidence that securitization reduces the coupon rates on fixed- or adjustable-rate mortgages. Instead, securitization appears to lower mortgage loan origination fees, resulting in substantial savings for consumers. Securitization activity includes passthrough creation and collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) creation. We test for differences between the effects of passthrough and CMO creation on primary mortgage costs. Surprisingly, these activities appear to have indistinguishable effects on loan rates and origination fees, suggesting that a large derivatives market for mortgage loans is not creating value for consumers.     

The Effects of Business-to-Business E-Commerce on Transaction Costs

This paper studies transaction costs changes arising from the introduction of the Internet in transactions between firms. We divide transaction costs into coordination costs and motivation costs. We classify coordination efficiencies into three categories: process improvements, marketplace benefits, and indirect improvements. For motivation costs, we focus on informational asymmetries. We apply this framework to internal data from an Internet-based firm to measure process improvements, marketplace benefits, and motivation costs. Our results suggest potentially large process improvements and marketplace benefits. We find little evidence that informational asymmetries are more important in the electronic marketplace than in the existing physical ones.     

The Effects of Acuity and Utilization on Nursing Home Costs

Recent proposals aim to relocate relatively healthy residents from nursing homes to lower-cost assisted care facilities. Such a move would have impacts on nursing home costs for two main reasons. It would decrease utilization rates and increase patient care needs, or acuity. A translog cost model is used to examine the impact that acuity and utilization have on nursing home costs. Results indicate that decreasing utilization will reduce total costs for nursing homes. However, increasing acuity will increase total costs. The total effect on nursing home costs of the change in policy is to decrease nursing home total costs but increase nursing home average costs per patient day.     

Contact High: The External Effects of Retail Marijuana Establishments on House Prices

Using publicly available data from the city of Denver and the state of Colorado, this study examines the effects of retail conversions (conversions from medical marijuana to retail marijuana stores) on neighboring house values in Denver, CO. The study period reflects a time before and after retail marijuana sales became legal in Colorado in 2014. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach, we compare houses that were in close proximity to a conversion (within 0.1 miles) to those that are farther away from a conversion. We find that single‐family residences close to a retail conversion increased in value by approximately 8% relative to houses that are located slightly farther away. We perform a battery of robustness checks and falsification tests to provide additional support for this finding. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine at a microlevel the highly localized effect of retail marijuana establishments on house prices and hope that it can contribute to the debate on retail marijuana laws.     

The Effects of Megamergers on Efficiency and Prices: Evidence from a Bank Profit Function

This paper examines the efficiency and price effects of mergers by applying a frontier profit function to data on bank megamergers. We find that merged banks experience a statistically significant 16 percentage point average increase in profit efficiency rank relative to other large banks. Most of the improvement is from increasing revenues, including a shift in outputs from securities to loans, a higher-valued product. Improvements were greatest for the banks with the lowest efficiencies prior to merging, who therefore had the greatest capacity for improvement. By comparison, the effects on profits from merger-related changes in prices were found to be very small.     

FOB or Uniform Delivered Prices: Strategic Choice and Welfare Effects

In spatial markets firms typically use either FOB (mill) or uniform delivered (UD) pricing. What competitive factors motivate this choice and what are the welfare implications of the choice? We study these questions in a duopsony market, where farmers with unit elastic supply curves sell to processing firms. In results that differ considerably from prior work, we show that the equilibrium price policy depends upon the extent of competition in the market, with FOB pricing emerging under very competitive structures and UD pricing emerging under less competition. Mixed FOB‐UD pricing may also emerge in equilibrium. In most cases welfare is higher under UD than FOB pricing.     

城市规划与土地利用规划的冲突与协调

城市总体规划与土地利用总体规划虽然侧重点不同,但二者都是以土地作为主要规划对象,其核心内容都是为实现土地资源的合理开发、利用,根本目标是实现土地资源可持续利用和城市的可持续发展。由于主管部门、目的内容、用地分类标准、规划期限等方面的不一致,两大规划之间存在着脱节甚至冲突等矛盾现象。简要分析了我国城市规划与土地利用总体规划编制与管理工作的不协调状况及原因,对这两大规划如何协调进行了探讨,提出为协调两大规划,应做好协调规划编制、统一规划审批、完善规划内容、提高规划权威、统一技术规范、完善规划体系和相关法律体系等方面的工作．     

中国城市化进程中土地集约利用的系统动力学模型

针对土地利用及城市发展系统的不断发展变化的动态特征,从系统工程的角度,应用系统动力学的方法,研究了城市土地可集约利用和城市可持续发展的问题。在充分考虑城市化过程中涉及的社会、经济和自然环境因素,建立了中国城市土地利用与城市可持续发展的系统动力学模型。在城市容积率高低两种政策下进行模型的对比模拟运行,并对结果进行了比较分析和解释。根据模拟的结果,结合我国目前城市化及土地利用的现状,提出了积极发展大城市、提高城市容积率和加强土地管理工作等相关建议。     

The Effects of the Real Estate Crisis on Institutional Stock Prices

This article investigates the contagious movement of financial institutions' common stock prices in response to real estate news. The basic hypothesis is that because real estate assets are traded infrequently, the market has incomplete information about their true value. The stock price reaction by banks, thrifts and insurance companies to announcements of poorly performing real estate portfolios is studied. Consistent with the hypothesis, significantly negative reactions obtain, both within and across industries, to these announcements. Reflecting the differential regulatory environment and disclosure policies, insurance companies, in general, react more strongly to adverse real estate news. Also, the price reaction of an individual firm is significantly associated with the level of its real estate exposure.     

土地储备视角下城市房屋拆迁管理研究

通过研究在土地储备制度下当前城市房屋拆迁管理存在的矛盾,采用规范研究和对比研究的方法,对土地储备制度下城市房屋拆迁主体、拆迁的公共利益性质、拆迁程序中存在的问题进行了详细分析。提出了在坚持土地储备制度的同时,应明确城市房屋拆迁的公共利益属性,在法律上确定土地储备机构为拆迁人;在城市规划阶段应进行公示听证,并取消拆迁管理部门裁决的权力,取消行政强制拆迁等建议。     

Expected and Actual Effects of Housing Allowances on Housing Prices

Most analysts and policy makers expected fullscale housing allowance programs to substantially disturb local housing markets, causing housing prices tb increase sharply. This paper reviews conjectures about expected price effects, summarizes evidence from the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment, and explains why the program did not engender the expected price inflation.