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on Urban Economics and Policy |
| By: | Krieger, Bastian (ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung; TUM – Technische Universität München); Kroll, Henning (Fraunhofer ISI; Leibniz Universität Hannover); Schubert, Torben (Fraunhofer ISI; CIRCLE, Lund University); Strecke, Linus (ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung; TU Berlin); Garcia Chavez, Cecilia (Fraunhofer ISI; CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the local economic effects of niche university actors depend on regional context. Focusing on private university campuses in Germany, we exploit their staggered foundation between 1990 and 2020 and estimate their effects using a conditional staggered difference-in-differences design at the postal-code level. Campus foundations raise local economic activity, but only gradually, with effects becoming statistically significant after about ten years. The effects are strongest in rural and intermediate regions, while urban regions show no significant effects. This pattern supports our argument that niche universities have greater potential to become significant actors in institutionally thinner rural regions. |
| Keywords: | Regional growth; Private universities; Place-based leadership; Urban-rural |
| JEL: | O12 O18 O38 O47 |
| Date: | 2026–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2026_005 |
| By: | Klaus Desmet; Dávid Krisztián Nagy; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how human capital shapes the economic geography of development. We propose a model in which human capital acquisition costs vary across space, and regions with higher human capital invest more in human-capital-augmenting technology. Locations are interconnected through costly migration and trade. Using data on local income and schooling, we quantify the model at a 1° x 1° resolution globally. Over two centuries, the model mostly predicts persistence in the spatial distribution of development. Proportionally lowering education costs in sub-Saharan Africa raises local outcomes but lowers global welfare, while the same policy in Latin America improves global welfare. An alternative policy that equalizes educational costs across sub-Saharan Africa generates worse outcomes, as population shifts within the region toward less productive areas. These results are driven by the estimated negative correlation between education costs and local fundamentals, as well as spatial inefficiencies due to externalities. |
| Keywords: | human capital; geography; development; education policy; global inequality; dynamic spatial models |
| JEL: | E24 F10 I24 J24 O11 O18 O33 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–09–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:103849 |
| By: | Hanming Fang; Jing Wu; Vincent Yao |
| Abstract: | We examine the causal effect of uncertainty in property rights on housing prices and speculative behavior. We take advantage of a distinctive setting in Shenzhen, China, where neighboring residential units that are otherwise similar differ in the strength of their property rights protections. Some units have full property rights (FPR) with a 70-year leasehold, whereas others have only limited property rights (LPR) protections. Using detailed listing data, we find that the sales market prices these protections, while the rental market does not. Our estimates imply that the perceived probability that FPR rights could be questioned at the end of the 70-year term is between 7% and 21%, and that the probability the LPR receives no legal protection in any future year exceeds 50%. We further show that LPR units are more susceptible to speculation, as reflected in higher turnover and greater price volatility. Lastly, we show that the public release of new urban planning codes raises listing prices and lowers turnover and price volatility for LPR properties relative to matched FPR units. |
| JEL: | G11 G12 R30 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35797 |
| By: | Jeffrey Brinkman; Jeffrey Lin |
| Abstract: | We construct city-level measures of freeway disamenities and examine their association with metropolitan growth. We combine neighborhood-level estimates from Brinkman and Lin (2024) with calibrated spatial models for U.S. metropolitan areas. Each city measure is based on a counterfactual that removes estimated disamenities while holding modeled travel times fixed. Cities with larger estimated disamenities grew more slowly, conditioned on total freeway mileage and initial population. Total freeway mileage is positively associated with growth in the same specification. Estimated disamenities are larger in cities with greater 1950 populations, more centralized freeway networks, and coastal geography. These patterns are consistent with local quality-of-life costs attenuating regional access related growth benefits. |
| Keywords: | freeway disamenities; metropolitan growth; quantitative spatial model; transportation infrastructure; urban quality of life; Interstate Highway System |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R13 R23 R41 |
| Date: | 2026–10–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:103888 |
| By: | Antoine B. Levy; Mathilde Muñoz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether and how distressed regions can recover from industrial decline. We exploit differences in access to an increasingly thriving Luxembourg labor market for neighboring residents of the French “Rust Belt.” We document a three-phase expansion of treated local labor markets, driven by an initial workplace substitution of incumbent residents towards cross-border job opportunities, a medium-term rise in local labor force utilization, and a long-run sustained increase in population via net domestic in-migration. A broader process of local revitalization follows, with higher incomes, reduced reliance on transfers, and resilience to social dislocation, although it is partially offset by rising housing costs and unequal congestion. This leads to a net decrease in far-right and anti- EU vote shares, muting the rise of populism visible elsewhere in former industrial regions of France. Our findings suggest that former industrial regions are not inherently rigid nor doomed to fall to anti-globalization backlash, but can and do adjust – given sufficiently large-scale reversals in local labor demand. |
| JEL: | F15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35814 |
| By: | Keisuke Kondo (Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry and Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how multiple agglomeration and dispersion forces shaped Mexico’s regional economic geography during the early post-NAFTA period. When economic activity becomes geographically concentrated, consumers gain better access to differentiated varieties and face lower effective transport costs, reducing the local consumption price index and making a region more attractive as a migration destination. Building on this price-index mechanism from New Economic Geography, we focus on four spatial forces: proximity to the U.S. market, the manufacturing price-index effect, the service price-index effect, and density-related urban costs. Using bilateral interstate migration between 1995 and 2000, we proceed in two stages. First, we estimate the structural parameters of the model and recover state-level price indices for manufactured goods and services. Second, we examine how destination–origin differences in nominal wages, price indices, and urban costs are associated with migration across sectors, while controlling for the additional locational advantage of U.S. border states. The manufacturing price index is strongly and negatively associated with migration of manufacturing workers, whereas its cross-sector effects are more limited. By contrast, the service price index is negatively and significantly associated with migration across all sectors, indicating a broad domestic agglomeration force. Employment density is generally negatively associated with migration, consistent with urban costs acting as a centrifugal force, while real-wage differentials are positively associated with migration across most industries. Taken together, the findings suggest that post-NAFTA Mexico was shaped by the interaction of border-oriented manufacturing agglomeration, domestic service-sector agglomeration, and urban-cost-driven dispersion. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Supplier access; Price index; Real wage; Agglomeration |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2026-27 |
| By: | Andrea Weber; David Card; Wolfgang Dauth; Wolfgang Frimmel; Julia Schmieder; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer |
| Abstract: | How big are the gains to international migration, and how do they vary across migrants? We use linked administrative data for Austria and Germany, focusing on migrants who were steadily employed 2-4 years before moving and their former co-workers as a comparison group in a difference-in-differences design. Combining origin- and destination-country data for five years after migration allows us to assess gains for both migrants who remain abroad and those who return. Austrian migrants to Germany experience an immediate and persistent increase of around 13% in daily wages relative to their matched co-workers, while German migrants to Austria gain about 4%. The higher returns for Austrians are mainly driven by higher average wages in Germany rather than differential selection. Consistent with a dynamic learning model, returns are largest for migrants who remain in the destination, smaller for those returning after 1-4 years, and zero for those returning within a year. To interpret these findings, we conduct a parallel analysis of domestic migrants moving to a larger city (Vienna or one of Germany's five largest cities). These "big-city" movers experience wage gains of about 5% in Austria and 10% in Germany. |
| Keywords: | international migration, domestic migration, returns to migration, co-worker design |
| JEL: | J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26250 |
| By: | Guillaume Chapelle; Alain Trannoy (CY Cergy Paris Université, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | Using French cadastral and transaction data, we study the effects of a VAT cut from 20% to 5.5% on new residential construction in and around about 600 deprived neighborhoods. The reduced rate raised the housing stock by 2% in floorspace terms, equivalent to roughly two years of residential investment over a decade, and generated a gain in total surplus of about €13.6 billion. We estimate the price elasticity of floor-space demand at −0.24, with a 60% pass-through to buyers; landowners and developers each capture roughly half of the remainder. We also confirm that housing supply in France is price-inelastic (elasticity of 0.35). |
| Keywords: | VAT, Housing, price-elasticities |
| JEL: | H22 R31 D61 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2026-11 |
| By: | Edward W. Chen; Reagan L. Lengefeld; Omar Isaac Asensio |
| Abstract: | This study examines a housing program that created affordable infill developments on formerly vacant, abandoned, or disinvested properties in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is a major economic hub anchored by the Port of Savannah, where many urban neighborhoods remain impacted by disinvestment and climate risk. Using two decades of record-linked property and tax data, this study quantifies local economic spillovers from this public intervention, revealing previously hidden social and economic benefits of infill housing policies. These benefits include an 11% increase in the market value of properties immediately neighboring an infill development site and an increase of up to 35% in areas with a high density of infill activity, pointing to block-level revitalization in climate-disadvantaged and distressed areas. |
| JEL: | C31 C32 C80 O18 Q56 R31 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35825 |
| By: | Bismark Aha (Nottingham Trent University); Abubakar Sadiq Abass (METU - Middle East Technical University [Ankara]); Philip Kofi Alimo (LAET - Laboratoire Aménagement Économie Transports - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Richmond Juvenile Ehwi (Oxford Brookes University) |
| Abstract: | Access to adequate housing is fundamental to wellbeing and sustainable development, yet systematic measurement of multidimensional housing quality and its spatial distribution is limited across many rapidly urbanising countries in the Global South. This paper develops a Multidimensional Housing Quality Index (MHQI) using household-level microdata from Ghana's 2021 Population and Housing Census (N = 836, 515) and combines it with the Alkire–Foster framework to assess the prevalence, spatial distribution and correlates of housing quality and deprivation. The MHQI integrates nine binary adequacy indicators across structural quality, sufficient living space, access to essential services, and sanitation and hygiene. The index is constructed by applying principal component analysis to the tetrachoric correlation matrix of the binary indicators to produce empirically derived adequacy weights. The national mean MHQI is 62.2 on a 0–100 scale, but this masks substantial inequalities: urban households score 73.1 compared with 45.3 in rural areas, and the inter-regional gap exceeds 42 points. The Alkire–Foster framework classifies 56.5% of households as housing poor and 37.2% as severely housing poor, with inadequate waste disposal, polluting cooking fuel and unimproved sanitation constituting the most widespread deficits. District-level MHQI scores show strong positive spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I > 0.71, p < 0.001), indicating clustered deprivation. Wealth, education and urban residence are identified as the strongest correlates of housing quality. The study provides a transferable measurement framework for countries where census or nationally representative household surveys contain comparable housing indicators. The findings support a shift from aggregate deficit narratives towards district-level prioritisation of specific housing deficits that drive deprivation in each locality. |
| Keywords: | Housing quality, Multidimensional poverty, Spatial inequality, Urban–rural disparities, Housing policy, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05735436 |
| By: | Seungmin Baek (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | This paper warns that building innovation cities and relocating public institutions risk delivering no more than a temporary boost to regional economies. In the mid-2010s, when relocations were at their peak, growth in the share of the population living in the Seoul Capital Area (SCA) slowed temporarily, but population inflows from the SCA to the innovation cities have effectively vanished after 2017.<p> The innovation cities began losing population on net in 2023, and from 2025 even inflows from within their own regions turned into net outflows. The first phase of public institution relocation did increase population and employment in the innovation cities, but its spillover effects were limited in both size and reach. Relocation mainly raised service-sector employment in the host areas, and its effects fell short of expectations, with spillovers concentrated within about ten kilometers (km) of the innovation cities.<p> In particular, the persistent net outflow of people moving for work after relocation was completed points to a shortage of firms offering good jobs in the innovation cities. The paper argues that developing the innovation cities requires a selective, concentrated approach to relocating public institutions, together with an effective long-term hub strategy that turns the cities’ existing assets into agglomeration economies.<p> Relocations should be concentrated in areas with good access to the infrastructure of metropolitan and other large cities, so as to magnify the spillovers and build hub cities capable of drawing population away from the SCA. Because lasting productivity gains depend on creating agglomeration economies, industrial policy tied to the physical and human infrastructure of the innovation cities should be used to stimulate production in the cities and their surrounding areas. Finally, making innovation city policy more effective and sustainable calls for a governance framework that encourages cooperation among ministries and between the central and local governments. |
| Keywords: | innovation cities; public institution relocation; hub cities; agglomeration economies; spillover effects; Seoul Capital Area; SCA; balanced regional development |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietia:023666 |
| By: | von Borries, Alvaro (CIRCLE, Lund University); Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Hall, Ola (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and applies a multidimensional indicator of objective well-being grounded in the capabilities approach to analyze spatial and temporal patterns across Swedish municipalities from 2002 to 2020. Operationalizing well-being as a place-based capability environment across six dimensions – economic, health, education, safety, civic, and inclusion – the study moves beyond income-centered accounts of regional inequality and examines how different dimensions of well-being are jointly shaped by local institutional and socioeconomic contexts. The analysis reveals that well-being is persistently structured by municipality type and industrial composition, yet in ways that defy a simple urban advantage: large municipalities lead on economic and educational dimensions but score systematically lower on safety and inclusion, while rural and small municipalities display more balanced capability profiles. Over the study period, well-being improved broadly but unevenly, with rural and peripheral municipalities converging toward the national median while former industrial towns experienced broad-based capability decline across multiple dimensions. The geography of well-being has increasingly aligned with the geography of political discontent, with electoral support for the Sweden Democrats growing strongest in capability-disadvantaged municipalities. Together, these findings advance a spatially grounded, multidimensional understanding of territorial inequality and offer a framework for identifying where structural disadvantage and capability deprivation intersect most acutely. |
| Keywords: | local well-being; capabilities approach; regional opportunity structures; Sweden |
| JEL: | I31 O15 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2026_003 |
| By: | Leonardo D’Amico (University of Chicago Booth School of Business); Evan Soltas (Princeton University); Audrey Wang (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the time durations of permitting and development for standardized new housing projects across 60 U.S. cities from 2000 to 2025. We report three new facts. First, the fastest cities complete projects in the time the slowest cities take to merely approve them. Second, across cities, permitting duration is positively associated with housing prices and negatively associated with production. The strength of these relationships rivals that of other measures of land-use regulation and suggests a high cost of delay. Third, permitting duration has risen steadily over time, whereas total project duration has fluctuated cyclically. |
| Keywords: | USA; United States of America, building permit, housing development, time-to-build |
| JEL: | H73 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:357 |
| By: | Shoichi Otomo |
| Abstract: | This manuscript is an English translation and extended version of a paper originally published in Japanese (2022). Driven by remarkable advances in remote sensing and big data processing, spatial technologies are increasingly leveraged in economic research. While satellite nighttime light intensity is widely recognized for tracking macroeconomic parameters - such as regional GDP, employment, and population - less attention has been paid to fine-grained spatial processing methodologies for local tourism economies. This study first details a raster processing technique applied to nightlight imagery. It then focuses on Yuzawa Town (Uonuma District, Niigata Prefecture), analyzing the local economy and sports/tourist attractions. Specifically, I investigate the spatio-temporal relationships between tourist arrivals and various local statistical datasets. Furthermore, this paper highlights how nightlight data can capture intra-municipal economic dynamics that remain undetectable through standard macroeconomic indicators. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.33859 |
| By: | Haldar, Stuti (CIRCLE, Lund University); Pugh, Rhiannon (CIRCLE, Lund University); Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | As green transitions accelerate, the resulting socio-technical transformations often produce uneven spatial impacts, generating 'green' discontent in peripheral and rural regions. Despite the growing discourse on 'just transition', regional policy models frequently overlook the multidimensional nature of justice. Through this study we explore how justice can be conceptualized and operationalized within regional green transitions? Theoretically, we propose a framework – the justice doughnut- that positions the trivalent approach (distributional, procedural, and recognitional justice) in regional development. We situate this framework amidst the evolving tensions between top-down 'directionality' (driven by sustainability mandates and strategic autonomy) and bottom-up 'subsidiarity' (rooted in place-based policy). We hence recontextualise justice as a mutually constitutive space that mediates the governance of regional transformations. Empirically, we illustrate this framework with a case study in Jämtland-Härjedalen, a peripheral region in North Sweden, vital to national transition ambitions. Employing an abductive, multi-method qualitative design - incorporating policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, and deliberative workshops- we examine the multilevel interactions between local, national, and EU actors. The findings reveal pervasive asymmetries in resources and legitimacy, alongside significant intra-regional differentiation. By highlighting how governance logics shape justice outcomes, we offer a generative lens for rethinking just regional development. We, hence, contribute to a deeper understanding of the institutional conditions necessary to reconcile national transition goals with regional equity in peripheral European contexts. |
| Keywords: | Regional development; Directionality; Subsidiarity; Just transition; Peripheral regions |
| JEL: | Q56 Q58 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–09–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2026_002 |
| By: | Maria Cristina Barbieri G\'oes; Saverio Barabuffi |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates spatial productivity convergence across Chinese provinces during structural transformation, examining how a shift in auonomous demand composition reshaped regional productivity dynamics. Using Panel Structural Vector Autoregressive modelling and province level data from 2001 to 2021, we analyse eastern, central, ad western regions across two sub-periods through the augmented Kaldor-Verdoorn law. A post-2011 spatial reversal emerges: inland regions exhibit stronger Verdoorn coefficients, while fiscal multipliers converge across coastal and inland areas, validating China's redistributive fiscal policies in narrowing regional productivity gaps. The Kaldor-Verdoorn coefficient remains robust throughout, while export effects on productivity collapse and government expenditure effects strenghten. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.37051 |
| By: | Evan Soltas (Princeton University); Jonathan Gruber (M.I.T.) |
| Abstract: | Permitting costs are widely cited, but little analyzed, as a key burden on housing development in leading U.S. cities. We measure them using an implicit market for “ready-to-issue†permits in Los Angeles, where landowners can prepay permitting costs and sell preapproved land to developers at a premium. Using a repeat-listing difference-in-differences estimator, we find developers pay 50 percent more ($48 per square foot) for preapproved land. Comparing similar proposed developments, preapproval raises the probability of completing construction within four years of site acquisition by 10 percentage points (30 percent). Permitting can explain one third of the gap in Los Angeles between home prices and construction costs. |
| Keywords: | Los Angeles, California, building permit, land-use regulation, hedonic, zoning, capitalization |
| JEL: | K25 R38 R52 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:352 |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro; Yyannu Cruz-Aguayo; Francesca Salvati; Norbert Schady |
| Abstract: | We study how poorly-behaved children affect learning and other outcomes of their peers using data from a unique experiment in Ecuador. Within each school, students were randomly assigned to classrooms in every grade for seven consecutive grades, between kindergarten and 6th grade. Children with persistent behavioral problems lower the math and language achievement of their classmates. The more poorly-behaved children there are in a classroom, the larger is their negative impact on the achievement of their classmates. These negative impacts are larger for younger children, and they persist for at least two years after exposure to a poorly-behaved peer. There are no dynamic complementarities in the impact of poorly-behaved peers: impacts are similar for children who were and were not previously exposed to poorly-behaved peers (and for high and low ability children). We find indirect evidence that children with persistent behavioral difficulties are passed around schools. |
| Keywords: | disruption, peers, random classroom assignment |
| JEL: | I24 I25 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13032 |