Private Investment, Public Aid and Endogenous Divergence in the Evolution of Urban Neighborhoods

This paper offers a novel explanation for urban blight and endogenous divergence in the overall quality and wealth of neighborhoods and simultaneously derives the salient features of actual urban renewal and other aid programs from optimizing government behavior based on collective public preferences. These features appear when the objective of such public aid programs is to restore the ex ante distribution of wealth or property values within a blighted neighborhood, while equilibria exhibiting deficient levels of private investment and blight itself can arise when residents accurately anticipate the potential provision of public aid to an affected neighborhood and ex ante investment in private insurance diminishes neighborhood eligibility for such aid. Examples of antipodal equilibria in which urban renewal programs entirely crowd out local private investment or in which neighborhood residents invest in efficient levels of private mitigation illustrate these results, which stand in direct contrast to both traditional explanations of urban blight and to the new “social-interaction” models of neighborhood divergence.     

Unintended consequences: How does digital inclusive finance affect migrants' urban settlement intentions?

Existing studies focus more on the benefits of digital inclusive finance in promoting employment, raising people's income, and boosting consumption, but have relatively ignore the widespread existence of the digital divide between urban and rural areas and among different groups in China and the unintended consequences it produces. This study first adds learning costs to the traditional population migration theoretical framework, confirming that the impact of digital inclusive finance on the urban settlement intention of the migrants has an inverted U-shape, as the level of digital inclusion financial development increases, the intentions of the migrants to settle down first rises and then falls. Empirical results support this finding. A further investigation shows that the economic dividends and learning cost associated with digital inclusive finance underpins such an inverted-U relationship. Moreover, individual endowment is an important factor affecting learning cost. The negative effect of digital inclusive finance on urban settlement intention is more obvious for rural migrants with relatively inferior endowment. Finally, we also find that education can mitigate this negative effect by reducing the related learning costs. This study provides strong evidence that in the rapid development of digital inclusive finance, migrants, especially those with insufficient endowments face greater migration costs.     

The real estate takeover: Application of Grossman and Hart theory

In this article, I adopt a corporate takeover model to the problem of a developer who wants to renew an urban neighborhood. The problem outlined is a combination of the problems addressed by Grossman and Hart (1980)(. The Bell Journal of Economics 11, 42–64) and Shleifer and Vishny (1986)(. Journal of Political Economy 94, 461–488) in the corporate control literature. The relevant corporate story concerns value-improving monitoring performed by shareholders. Even though monitoring increases the value of the company for each investor, no shareholder would be willing to do it because there is an externality involved. Translating this into the language of urban redevelopment, no homeowner would do any improvement in the neighborhood unless he or she can internalize the benefit. The story in the urban renewal framework is more complicated. These property owners may differ in their valuation of even otherwise identical units since the owners may have different attachments to the neighborhood. I address some of these problems and also introduce the notion of dilution as the participating government agency's ability to force initial residents to sell to the developer or comply with costly new standards for development. Dilution increases the costs to potential holdouts.     

The Impact of Firm Location on Equity Issuance

In this paper, I use location as a proxy for the ability of a firm to issue equity. Numerous studies indicate that investors are better able to obtain information on nearby companies. I posit that costs in generating information will be higher for rural firms with few investors in their proximity, than for urban firms with many nearby investors. As predicted, I find that rural firms are less likely to conduct seasoned equity offerings than firms located in urban areas. Furthermore, I find that when a rural firm issues equity, it uses a lower-quality underwriter than otherwise similar urban firms.     

Property-Value Impacts of an Environmental Disamenity: The Case of Landfills

The purpose of this article is to quantify the property-value impacts of a change in environmental quality by using the hedonic price model. In particular, we focus on the impact of the presence of landfills on nearby residential real estate prices. We combine elements of an urban location choice and hedonic pricing model to estimate the effects of the presence of multiple environmental disamenities on residential real estate prices. We explicitly account for temporal effects by including housing transactions in areas with both open and closed landfills and control for information effects. In addition, we treat property taxes and prices as being simultaneously determined. Our analysis suggests that closing landfills will not necessarily mitigate property-value impacts.     

Valuing Open Space and Land-Use Patterns in Urban Watersheds

This article presents the results of a hedonic property value analysis for an urban watershed in New Haven County, Connecticut. We use spatially referenced housing and land-use data to capture the effect of environmental variables around the house location. We calculate and incorporate data on open space, land-use diversity, and other environmental variables to capture spatial variation in environmental quality around each house location. We are ultimately interested in determining whether variables that are reflective of spatial diversity do a better job of describing human preferences for housing choice than broad categories of rural versus urban areas. Using a rich data set of over 4,000 houses, we study these effects within a watershed that includes areas of high environmental quality and low environmental quality as well as varying patterns of socioeconomic conditions. Our results suggest that, in addition to structural characteristics, variables describing neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and variables describing land use and environmental quality are influential in determining human values. We also find that the scale at which we measure these spatially defined environmental variables is important.     

An empirical examination of the externalities of neighborhood churches on housing values

Recently, establishment of churches in residential neighborhoods has become controversial. This study is the first to address the issue of whether a neighborhood church positively or negatively affects the value of nearby single-family properties. This hypothesis is tested with a standard hedonic pricing model, using a sample of 469 sales transactions drawn from a large metropolitan area. Nonchurch effects are held constant with a standard set of housing-related variables. A distance variable is included to measure the direction and magnitude of the externality effect. Results indicate the effect of churches on sales price is negative up to approximately 850 feet. The authors suggest that empirical evidence such as this will inform both public and private parties involved in land use decisions relating to neighborhood churches.     

The avenue effect,landmark externalities,and cubic transformation: Manhattan office valuation

A functional form for the valuation of office buildings is a third-order function that replicates the constrained cost function in which one of the inputs, land, is fixed. The third-order transformation improves a hedonic regression pricing model and reduces the autocorrelation. The presence of neighborhood landmarks, selected avenue address, and building size influence the office building value. The data set includes 103 midtown Manhattan office building sales transactions from 1980 to first quarter 1990.     

Borrower and neighborhood racial and income characteristics and financial institution mortgage application screening

Disparities in mortgage lending patterns between minority and nonminority neighborhoods have refocused attention on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a statute designed to encourage lending by financial institutions to nearby lower income neighborhoods. Geographic disparities may derive from discrimination, neighborhood and borrower attributes, as well as regulation itself. This article examines possible spatial impacts of the CRA. Tests for differential lender screening across regulated and nonregulated institutions in five metropolitan areas provide no consistent findings of regulatory effects. The article also tests whether lower income and minority applicants are more likely to be accepted when they apply for loans in lower income and minority neighborhoods. Using data for Boston, evidence is found for concentration effects that may result from institutional factors, information economies, or regulation.     

Risk mitigation of post-earthquake fire in urban buildings

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) is considered one of the most high risk and complicated problems affecting buildings in urban areas and can cause even more damage than the earthquake itself. However, most standards and codes ignore the implications of PEF and so buildings are not normally designed with PEF in mind. What is needed is for PEF factors to be routinely scrutinized and codified as part of the design process. A systematic application is presented as a means of mitigating the risk of PEF in urban buildings. This covers both existing buildings, in terms of retrofit solutions, and those yet to be designed, where a PEF factor is proposed. To ensure the mitigation strategy meets the defined criteria, a minimum time is defined – the safety guaranteed time target – where the safety of the inhabitants in a building is guaranteed.     

A Consideration of Literature on Trust and Distrust as they Relate to Auditor Professional Scepticism

With a view to expanding the discussion on professional scepticism, and motivating a broader perspective in research undertaken with the aim of helping auditors meet ongoing demands for an elevated level of professional scepticism, we consider the literature on trust and distrust as it relates to auditor professional scepticism. We draw on literature from a range of disciplines, and highlight new opportunities and previously unidentified challenges in helping auditors exercise an elevated level of professional scepticism. We distinguish between trust and distrust and note that the issue of professional scepticism is likely to be as much about auditors being insufficiently distrusting as it is about auditors being overly trusting. A number of potentially fruitful means by which professional scepticism might be enhanced are highlighted but we also encourage caution in that lower levels of trust in management, and increased distrust in management, may have unintended negative consequences.     

The impact of geographical factors on churn prediction: an application to an insurance company in Madrid's urban area

Geography has previously been noted as a decisive factor in business literature. This paper provides evidence of the significant role geography plays in customer lapse behaviour in an urban environment. This novel approach is based on the idea that the customers who cancel all policies and leave the company are not randomly distributed; rather, a mimetic performance of close individuals is noted. The physical proximity of the customer to the geographical focus (strategical centre, as insurance offices) and the interaction with nearby customer are spatial factors that increase (or decrease) the probability of churning. An empirical analysis using more than 7000 spatially georeferenced offline customers of a Spanish insurance company in the urban area of Madrid (Spain) demonstrated that the customer's proximity to offices of such insurance company under study decreases the probability of churning, whereas high lapse risk was detected in customers in the surroundings of the company's competitor branches. In addition, we identified spatial autocorrelation in churn probability, thus demonstrating that the probability of churn of a customer increases if nearby customers churn.     

The effects of rural–urban migration on corporate innovation: Evidence from a natural experiment in China

We show that the migration of low-skilled, rural workers to urban centers has a negative causal effect on innovation of firms in such urban centers. Our tests exploit the staggered relaxation of city-level household registration system in China, which facilitates rural residents to migrate to cities. We find a significant decrease in innovation for firms headquartered in cities that have adopted such policies relative to firms headquartered in cities that have not. Overall, our results support the view that an abundant supply of low-skilled workers increases the benefit of using existing low-skilled technology and thus reduces firms’ incentive to innovate.     

Seismic vulnerability assessment of historical urban centres: case study of the old city centre of Faro,Portugal

The necessity of implementing seismic vulnerability assessment procedures to the Portuguese building stock has become urgent as recent predictions indicate the possibility of the occurrence of an earthquake similar to the well-known 1755 Lisbon earthquake within the next 50 years. Obviously, at first instance, large-scale procedures should be used rather than more extensive and accurate methodologies suited for individual buildings assessment. Moreover, it is fundamental to operate in the most vulnerable areas in our built environment, typically, the historical urban centres. As it is recognised, it is within these areas, that old masonry buildings are generally concentrated, being both the most representative and vulnerable constructive typology. Comprising 354 buildings, the case study of the old city centre of Faro is herein presented aiming at analysing and evaluating the seismic vulnerability of its old masonry building stock. In order to achieve these objectives, a vulnerability-index-based methodology was used for the assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the old masonry buildings belonging to the historical centre of Faro (Ribeirinha area) carried out through detailed inspection and survey. The results obtained were analysed using a geographical information system tool. The integration of such vulnerability and loss results represents a valuable tool for city councils and/or regional authorities to plan interventions, on the basis of a global view of the site under analysis, leading this way to more accurate and comprehensive risk mitigation strategies which comply with the requirements of safety and emergency planning. The application of this large-scale scoring methodology has confirmed moderate-to-high values for the vulnerability of this particular area, which combined with its high seismicity, may be quite alarming.     

Community Targeting for Poverty Reduction in Burkina Faso

This article develops a method for targeting antipoverty programsand public projects to poor communities in rural and urban areas.The method calls for constructing an extensive data set froma large number of sources and then integrating the entire setinto a geographic information system. The data set includesdemographic data from the population census; household-leveldata from a variety of surveys; community-level data on localroad infrastructure, public facilities, water points, and soon; and department-level data on agroclimatic conditions. Aneconometric model that estimates the impact of household-, community-,and department-level variables on household consumption is usedto identify the key explanatory variables that determine thestandard of living in rural and urban areas. This model is thenapplied to predict poverty indicators for 3,871 rural and urbancommunities in Burkina Faso and to map the spatial distributionof poverty in the country. A simulation analysis assesses theeffectiveness of village-level targeting based on these predictions.The results show that such targeting is an improvement overregional targeting in that it reduces leakage and undercoverage.     

家庭风险金融资产配置对个人幸福感的影响研究

利用CHFS2015数据通过有序probit模型实证分析了家庭风险金融资产配置对个人幸福感的影响。研究发现,在城乡总样本中配置股票对个人幸福感有显著负向影响,配置银行理财产品对个人幸福感有显著正向影响,基金、债券均无显著影响。但在城市、农村子样本中,不同风险资产配置又体现出差异性,如股票对幸福感的影响在农村不再显著。我们还发现,我国家庭风险金融资产配置比例极低,股票比重较大,结构有待调整。     

Finance,law and poverty: Evidence from India

Using state-level data from India over the period 1983–2005, this paper shows a strong negative relationship between financial depth (as measured by credit volume) and rural poverty. Instrumental variable regressions suggest that this relationship is robust to endogeneity biases. Furthermore, financial deepening has a bigger impact on rural poverty alleviation than outreach (as measured by branch penetration). We find suggestive evidence that financial deepening reduced poverty rates especially among self-employed in the rural areas and also supported an inter-state migration trend from rural areas into the tertiary sector in urban areas, consistent with financial deepening being driven by credit to the tertiary sector. Our findings suggest that financial deepening contributed to poverty alleviation in rural areas by fostering entrepreneurship and inducing geographic-sectoral migration.     

Unemployment insurance benefits and income smoothing

Labor unemployment insurance reduces unemployment concerns. We argue that these benefits moderate incentives to smooth earnings to reduce employees’ concerns about unemployment risk. Using exogenous variations in unemployment insurance benefits, we find evidence consistent with this argument. We also find that the link between unemployment insurance benefits and income smoothing is stronger when there is higher unemployment risk and when the firm is likely to employ more low-wage workers, who find unemployment insurance benefits especially useful. Our paper contributes to the literature by showing that public policy decisions such as unemployment insurance have significant, albeit probably unintended, externalities on corporate financial reporting.     

Intended or Unintended Consequences? Resource Erosion in New Zealand's Government Departments

Internationally, a feature of public sector reforms over the last twenty years is the characterisation of negative effects as unintended consequences, yet the reform programme continues as before (Humphrey et al., 1993 and 1998). This article reports the findings from an investigation of ostensibly unintended consequences of New Zealand's public sector financial management system: resource erosion in government departments which both escapes parliamentary scrutiny and damages departments' capability to perform even core functions (State Services Commission, 1998a; and Controller and Auditor–General, 1999). The findings suggest that these effects might not be unintended. The system's structures and processes, including designed–in resource erosion processes and a surreptitious approach, are highly consistent with those advocated to facilitate privatisation.     

‘Radiant with possibility’: Involving young people in creating a vision for the future of their community

This paper argues that young people need to be given the opportunity to recognise the interaction between their own understandings of the world as it is now and the vision of what it might become. To support this argument, we discuss an urban planning project, known as the Lower Mill Site Project, which involved active participation of high school students from the local community. The outcomes of this project demonstrate the positive contributions young people can make to the process of urban redevelopment, the advantages of using a participatory design approach, and the utopian possibilities that can emerge when young people are invited to be part of an intergenerational community project.