The Long-Run Effect of Economic Development Policy on Resident Welfare in a Perfectly Competitive Urban Economy

This paper argues that evaluations of economic development policy must consider the long-run effect on resident welfare. The paper uses comparative static analysis of a closed, urban economy with an explicit labor market, to investigate the effect of policies that stimulate economic activity. The paper finds that such policies do not necessarily raise resident welfare, because of the competition for land between firms and households. On the other hand, the paper does find that income transfers increase resident welfare. This model assumes, however, that the land, capital, and labor markets are perfectly competitive. Therefore, these results are based on the assumption that an urban economy is efficient.     

Rent Subsidy and Housing Satisfaction The Case of Urban Renewal In Lubbock, Texas

—Governmental programs proposing rental supplements for low-income families assume that social and economic conditions of these families may be improved by such subsidy. However, this assumption has not been adequately tested by social science research. Data presented here were gathered at an urban renewal relocation housing project in Lubbock, Texas, and suggest that when families who, before urban renewal, were self-sufficient in slum housing are forced into welfare situations because of rent subsidy programs, dissatisfaction with relocation facilities results. The data also indicate that dissatisfaction is correlated positively with the number of persons in the household, the age of residents, and socioeconomic status.     

Transport impacts of government employment decentralization in an Australian city – Testing scenarios using transport simulation

Australia's largest cities are more mono-centric than most US cities and may be over-centralising, particularly in terms of office employment. Government worker relocation programs are being employed with policy debate over what should be an ideal urban structure including in terms of travel behaviour. The paper explores research approaches to explore transport impacts of employment decentralization. A review shows the results of: surveys of workers moved to suburban locations; longitudinal analyses of transport and land use changes in city-regions using cross-sectional census or HTS data; comparative analysis of urban structure variables across cities using similar datasets; combinations of longitudinal and comparative research; and, scenario-based modelling approaches. A modelling framework is then developed to appraise the possible transport impacts of decentralization in Brisbane. To test the possibilities further, two decentralization scenarios modelled and compared. Decentralization mostly to middle-suburban locations better addresses jobs-housing balance and maximises proposed new public transport services, producing good transport outcomes. However, decentralization to outer-suburban locations in Brisbane exacerbates the propensity for decentralization to increase travel distances, especially by car.     

Effects of residential relocation on household and commuting expenditures in Shanghai, China

Over the past three decades, China's cities have undergone massive spatial restructuring in the wake of market reforms and economic growth. One consequence has been a rapid migration of urban residents to the periphery. Some movers have been forced out either by rising urban rents or government reclamation of their residences. Others have relocated willingly to modernized housing or for other lifestyle reasons. This article examines the effects of relocation to the urban edge on household well-being. It explores the factors underlying changes in housing and transportation costs as households move to the periphery. The research also examines whether those who moved involuntarily are affected differently from those who moved by choice. Results show that, relative to those who moved by choice, involuntary movers are disproportionately and adversely affected in terms of job accessibility, commute time, housing consumption and disposable income. The findings also show that, compared with higher-income households, lower-income groups are disproportionately affected in relation to housing costs, accessibility losses, disposable income and household worker composition. These results indicate that relocation compensation for involuntarily relocated households should be expanded to include more than just housing value: it should encompass urban location changes, household needs and relocation costs.     

加强城镇污水处理厂环保监督管理

本文介绍了城镇污水处理厂监督检查内容、发现的问题及解决措施。城镇污水处理厂能有效处理城区的生活污水、工业废水,避免污水及污染物直接流入水域,对改善生态环境、提升城市品位和促进经济发展具有重要意义。但在其日常运行中仍存在问题,城镇污水处理厂的运行监督尤为重要。     

新零售下生鲜连锁零售企业城市前置仓选址问题研究

文章研究了在新零售环境下,生鲜连锁零售企业为服务C端及B端市场,改变城市配送模式,建立了一个以最小成本为目标,以拟改前置仓数、门店面积、前置仓服务半径等为约束条件的前置仓选址模型,据此进行门店改造选址方案决策。最后以贵阳某生鲜连锁零售企业为实例进行测算,给出了贵阳市区前置仓选址方案。     

转型时期城中村改造:基于农民工住宅选择的实证研究

"突进式"的"整体拆除-搬迁-重建",是当前政府部门主导城中村改造的最主要模式,这种改造模式往往会遇到很强的社会阻力,政策效果难以实现。本文通过农民工住宅选择的理论模型,从微观视角解释城中村存在和当前"突进式"改造模式预期效果难以实现的原因。通过对2007年和2009年北京市调研数据的实证分析发现,在户籍制度约束下,农民工住宅选择具有就业趋向和租金规避特征,并导致其偏好在城中村居住。从长远来看,转变经济利益导向观念,最大可能地考虑公共利益,由"突进式"整体改造模式向"渐进式"综合改良模式转变,是城中村改造的正确方向。     

Spatial dynamics and metropolitan change

"This special issue presents contributions to a collaborative effort to analyze 'the dynamics of metropolitan processes and policies'....[It] contains four papers which focus on industrial change and economic restructuring; two papers deal with population relocation and migration processes; one paper contains a study of economic cycles in space and one paper treats the assessment of urban investment and urban renewal projects." The geographic focus is on the developed countries.     

The economics of urban yard space: An “implicit-market” model for housing attributes

A theoretical housing model is developed embodying the approach of the recent hedonic price literature. Instead of focusing on a scalar “housing service” consumption measure, the model portrays housing as a commodity with two attributes: floor space and yard space. Developers react to a consumer bid-rent function, which relates dwelling rent to floor space, yard space, and location, in choosing the profit-maximizing characteristics of their housing complexes. The spatial behavior of the developer's choice variables is investigated (an interesting question is whether yards are larger farther from the urban center), and a comparative static analysis of the housing market equilibrium is presented.     

环境约束条件下中国城市经济效率测度

利用2005-2008年期间28个主要城市的面板数据,实证测度了DEA方法中CCR模型与SBM模型下的城市经济效率,并进行了各城市的区域比较分析。在此基础上,运用面板数据模型研究发现,城市化率、市辖区面积和经济结构对城市经济效率起抑制作用,外商投资则起促进作用。最后,提出了相关的政策建议。     

Agglomeration under forward-looking expectations: Potentials and global stability

This paper considers a class of migration dynamics with forward-looking agents in a multi-country solvable variant of the core–periphery model of Krugman [Krugman, P., 1991. Increasing returns and economic geography. Journal of Political Economy 99, 483–499]. We find that, under a symmetric externality assumption, our static model admits a potential function, which allows us to identify a stationary state that is uniquely absorbing and globally accessible under the perfect foresight dynamics whenever the degree of friction in relocation decisions is sufficiently small. In particular, when trade barriers are low enough, full agglomeration in the country with the highest barrier is the unique stable state for small frictions. New aspects in trade and tax policy that arise due to forward-looking behavior are discussed.     

Optimal density of radial major roads in a two-dimensional monocentric city with endogenous residential distribution and housing prices

This paper proposes an analytical urban system equilibrium model for optimizing the density of radial major roads in a two-dimensional monocentric city. The proposed model involves four types of agents: local authorities, property developers, households and household workers (i.e. commuters). The local authorities aim to maximize the total social welfare of the urban system by determining the optimal density of radial major roads in the city. The property developers seek to determine the intensity of their capital investment in the land market to maximize the net profit generated from the housing supply. The households choose residential locations that maximize their utility within a budget constraint, and the commuters choose the radial major roads that minimize their individual costs of travel between home and workplace. A heuristic solution procedure is developed to find the urban system equilibrium solution. A system optimum model is also proposed to optimize the density of radial major roads that maximizes the social welfare of the urban system. The proposed model can endogenously determine household residential distribution and land values across the city, along with the housing market structure in terms of housing prices and space. Numerical comparative static analyses of congestion pricing and road infrastructure investment (adding a new radial major road) are carried out together with evaluation of the effects of the service level of radial major roads, urban population size, and household income level on the urban economy.     

IMPACTS OF ECONOMIC REFORM ON RURAL-URBAN WELFARE: A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM FRAMEWORK

This paper demonstrates how economic reform undertaken in a developing country will impact not only macroeconomic variables but also income distribution between different household groups, particularly between rural and urban households. Unlike the well-known link to macroeconomic variables, the path connecting economic reform with income of rural-urban households is more equivocal and thus demands an inquisition. The CGE model constructed in this study is designed to serve such a purpose. When applied to the Indonesian case, both the static and dynamic simulations indicate that the post-reform progress in the country's macroeconomic condition is likely accompanied by worsening—albeit slightly—household income distribution between income groups. The non agricultural sector appears to be the major beneficiary of the reform. From the dynamic simulation, a worsening distribution is also found between rural and urban areas. However, results of both simulations also show that improved poverty conditions are likely achieved following the reform.     

Spatial Growth and Redevelopment with Perfect Foresight and Durable Housing

In this paper, I present a theoretical model of the spatial growth of an urban area with durable housing. I combine several assumptions that typically complicate the analysis: (i) housing developers have perfect foresight; (ii) the initial development and many waves of redevelopment are considered in each developer's plan; and (iii) the closed-city assumption is made, so that the time path of population is exogenous and that of consumer utility is endogenous. I still obtain explicit solutions for the spatial pattern of urban growth, and for the timing of the initial residential development and each successive redevelopment at each distance from the urban center. I compare perfect-foresight growth to growth with static expectations, and I examine the comparative statics of both.     

A cognitive hierarchy model of learning in networks

This paper proposes a method for estimating a hierarchical model of bounded rationality in games of learning in networks. A cognitive hierarchy comprises a set of cognitive types whose behavior ranges from random to substantively rational. Specifically, each cognitive type in the model corresponds to the number of periods in which economic agents process new information. Using experimental data, we estimate type distributions in a variety of task environments and show how estimated distributions depend on the structural properties of the environments. The estimation results identify significant levels of behavioral heterogeneity in the experimental data and overall confirm comparative static conjectures on type distributions across task environments. Surprisingly, the model replicates the aggregate patterns of the behavior in the data quite well. Finally, we found that the dominant type in the data is closely related to Bayes-rational behavior.     

Transferability of disaggregate mode choice models

Predictions of aggregate transport mode split for inter-city trips are derived from a disaggregate model of travel demand. A series of tests are performed to assess the limitations of the prediction methodology for disaggregate models, and it is shown that disaggregate models are capable of predictions across diverse travel situations. The disaggregate model predictions are compared with predictions derived from aggregate models such as are currently used in urban transportation planning, and it is shown that disaggregate models based on much smaller data sets predict better than aggregate models while requiring no more information about the predicted population.     

Modeling Criminal Activity in an Area in Economic Decline: Local Economic Conditions Are a Major Factor in Local Property Crimes

A bstract . A multi-factor model includes economic, apprehension, seasonal a n d plant closing variables as the explanatory regressors and crimes against property as the dependent variable. Different lag structures were used on the explanatory variables such as an Almon distributed lag of a second degree polynominal nature and the lagging of the dependent variable by one quarter so that the model would more closely approximate the environment being considered. The results suggest a definite seasonal pattern in crimes against property, and the economic variables measuring local, not national, conditions, appear to be more significant regressors than any other explanatory variables.     

NATURE OF RURAL–URBAN INTERDEPENDENCIES AND THEIR DIFFUSION PATTERNS IN SOUTHERN GREECE: AN INTERREGIONAL SAM MODEL

A three-area interregional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) model is used to analyze economic interdependencies and relevant diffusion patterns within and between rural-urban localities in Southern Greece: the rural areas of Archanes and N. Kazantzakis and the urban area of Heraklion. Both rural areas trickle significant economic benefits to the urban area, while the urban area has marginal linkages with them. Policy simulation analysis results have indicated that farm income support measures are important to Archanes, since reduced spending in farm income support creates significant negative impacts on firm and household income, and is not compensated by an equivalent increase in rural development policy spending. These findings do not hold for the diffusion of economic impacts towards N. Kazantzakis and Heraklion; results of this simulation show that positive economic benefits are still diffused to both the wealthier urban area and the adjacent poorer rural area of N. Kazantzakis.     

我国城市增长绩效评价研究

本文采用DEA方法构建评价城市增长绩效的静态模型和动态模型,分析我国34个城市1992～2008年间城市增长的静态和动态绩效.根据非参数统计假设检验-Mann-Whitney U检验结果,2008年我国中部与西部地区的城市增长静态增长绩效并没有显著的差异,而西部、中部与东部地区均存在显著差异.从1992～2008年,我...     

Urban land use allocation and environmental pollution control: An intertemporal optimization approach

This paper deals with long-run, multiperiod strategies of environmental pollution control and allocation of urban land uses. Air pollution generated by the industrial, residential and transportation sectors is taken as representative of the urban environmental quality problem. A comprehensive urban development optimization model is presented, integrating three submodel components for industrial, residential and transportation activities. The analysis focuses on the intertemporal linkages between technological and locational decisions, accounting for land availability, air pollution generation, control and impact, technological change, relocation of activities, land development and redevelopment, and transportation flows and network expansion. The modeling approach is of the cost-effectiveness type: the efficiency criterion is the total intertemporal cost of urban development and operation, and the objectives of the environmental policy are expressed in terms of standards to be respected. The methodology is illustrated by an empirical application to the Haifa metropolitan area.