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on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Lourdes Diaz Olvera (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - Université Lumière - Lyon II); Didier Plat (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - Université Lumière - Lyon II); Pascal Pochet (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - CNRS : UMR5593 - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - Université Lumière - Lyon II) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines access to the city as revealed by the daily travel behaviour of urban dwellers. It is based on secondary analyses of six household travel surveys carried out in cities in West and Central Africa between 1992 and 2003. Vehicle ownership rates are low in these cities and the cost of public transport is a major item of expenditure in household budgets, which limits its use. Walking is thereforethe main mode of transport for most urban dwellers. The paper highlights the difficulties and issues linked with trip-making to conduct the major types of out-of-home activities (work and education, household management, and sociability). Our analyses show that the shortcomings of the transport system restrict the ability of urban dwellers, particularly the poor, to travel outside their neighbourhood and play a part in maintaining social inequalities. |
| Keywords: | Daily mobility; Transportation mode; Trip purpose; Household travel survey; Access to the city; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00861105&r=ure |
| By: | Nicola Brandt |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature and policy discussions about the role of the property tax for land use. Various externalities of the development of land, such as new infrastructure needs, the loss of open space or air pollution due to longer commutes as people locate far from city centres, are not internalised fully by property taxes or other policy instruments and this is often thought to contribute to excessive land use and urban sprawl. The impact of property taxes on land use intensity and sprawl is ambiguous in theory, however, and it depends on tax design, as well as land use regulation policies and other taxes that can influence municipalities’ incentives to convert land for development. Yet, there is some evidence suggesting that higher property taxes can limit urban sprawl, in particular when the tax on land is higher than on structures, although effects are small given relatively given a limited price elasticity of land use. Various property tax design options are discussed that may help to better internalise land use related externalities. |
| Keywords: | land use, fiscal zoning, property tax, urban sprawl |
| JEL: | R14 R38 R51 R52 |
| Date: | 2014–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ctpaab:17-en&r=ure |
| By: | Görlitz, Katja (Free University of Berlin); Rzepka, Sylvi (RWI) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the National Educational Panel Study of 2009/2010, this paper investigates the relationship between regional training supply and employees' training participation. Controlling for other regional factors such as the local unemployment rate, the educational level, the population density and the regional industry composition, the results indicate that training participation is significantly higher in regions with many firms in the training supply market. The predictive power of the other regional factors is rather minor. |
| Keywords: | training, local labor markets |
| JEL: | J24 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8101&r=ure |
| By: | Thomas-Agnan, Christine; Bonneu, Florent |
| Abstract: | We address the question of measuring and testing industrial spatial concentration based on micro-geographic data with distance based methods. We discuss the basic requirements for such measures and we propose four additional requirements. We also discuss the null assumptions classically used for testing aggregation of a particular sector and propose an alternative point of view. Our general index measure involves a cumulative and a non-cumulative version. This allows us to propose an alternative version of the Duranton Overman index with a proper baseline as well as a cumulative version of this same index. We illustrate the approach with some simulated data. |
| Keywords: | Spatial concentration, marked point processes, agglomeration, spatial clusters. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:27959&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Michael Wyrwich (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | We use the historical self-employment rate as an indicator of a regional culture of entrepreneurship and link this measure to economic growth in recent periods. The results indicate that German regions with a high level of entrepreneurship in the mid- 1920s have higher start-up rates about 80 years later. Furthermore, we find that the effect of current start-up activity on regional employment is significantly higher in regions with a pronounced entrepreneurial culture. We conclude that a regional culture of entrepreneurship is an important resource for regional growth. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, economic development, self-employment, new business formation, entrepreneurship culture, institutions |
| JEL: | L26 R11 O11 |
| Date: | 2014–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2014-014&r=ure |
| By: | Robert J. Hill (University of Graz); Michael Scholz (University of Graz) |
| Abstract: | The increasing availability of geospatial data (i.e., exact longitudes and latitudes for each house) has the potential to improve the quality of house price indexes. It is not clear though how best to use this information. We show how geospatial data can be included as a nonparametric spline surface in a hedonic model. The hedonic model itself is estimated separately for each period. Price indexes are then computed by inserting the imputed prices of houses obtained from the hedonic model into the Fisher price index formula. Using a data set consisting of 454507 observations for Sydney, Australia over the period 2001-2011 we demonstrate the superiority of a geospatial spline over postcode dummies as a way of controlling for locational effects. While the difference in the resulting price indexes is not that large – since the postcodes in Sydney are quite narrowly defined – we nevertheless find evidence of a slight bias in the postcode based indexes. This can be attributed to systematic changes over time within each postcode in the locational quality of houses sold. |
| Keywords: | Housing market; Hedonic imputation; Price index; Geospatial spline; Quality adjustment |
| JEL: | C43 E01 E31 R31 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2014-05&r=ure |
| By: | Emeric Lendjel (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marianne Fischman (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Experimentations and innovations flourish in France that involve a container barge transport (CBT) as the main leg for urban distribution of goods. Based on the study of existing chains, the paper shows how coordination issues are actually managed by CBT stakeholders. With the help of Transaction Costs Economics, the paper shows that coordination and pooling issues lead CBT stakeholders to adopt hierarchical or hybrid governance structures to build regular inland shipping line. Based on this result, several examples are used to identify the economic and organizational conditions of river logistics in urban area. |
| Keywords: | Urban river logistics; coordination; governance structure; transaction costs economics |
| Date: | 2013–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00978092&r=ure |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Licklederer, Stefanie |
| Abstract: | In Germany, the entry into the labor market for students in the nonacademic tracks of secondary schools may take multiple pathways. Students graduating from lower track secondary schools (LTSS) face major problems in school-towork transitions, prompting the provision of intensive career guidance in school. In a case study for the City of Freiburg, this paper analyzes skill formation, career guidance, and the first transition after graduation for LTSS students in the late 2000s. We find that only about 10% of LTSS students start an apprenticeship immediately after graduation. Instead, about half of the LTSS students, typically those with better school grades, participate in additional general teaching (AGT) and rather enter further schooling than an apprenticeship. In addition, the majority of students with poor school grades continue with pre-vocational training. The latter group involves a large share of male students with a migration background. Our findings show a large heterogeneity among LTSS students, most visible in the division between students with and without AGT. Furthermore, characteristics observable at the end of grade 7 have a strong predictive power on the transition after graduation, and focusing career guidance on the immediate start of an apprenticeship after graduation may be misplaced. -- |
| Keywords: | school-to-work transition,lower track secondary schools,vocational training,career guidance |
| JEL: | I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14026&r=ure |
| By: | Aysoy, Cem; Aysoy, Cevriye; Tumen, Semih |
| Abstract: | Using a national panel of housing units, this paper documents that the rate of nominal rigidity in housing rents is high in Turkey between 2008 and 2011. We find that, on average, 31.5 percent of the rents did not change from year to year in nominal terms. We then ask if the incidence of nominal rigidity depends on the turnover status of the housing unit. We show that 35.4 percent of the nonturnover units had rigid rents, while for only 17.1 percent of the turnover units rents did not change. We also present evidence that grid pricing is associated with more than half of the nominal rigidity in housing rents in our sample. The household- and individual-level determinants of the nominal rigidity in rents and turnover status are also investigated using the micro-level details available in our dataset. We document that, relative to the low-income tenants, high-income tenants are less likely to have rigid rents and they are also less likely to change units frequently. This finding suggests that search and moving costs impose frictions that amplify the opportunity costs of high-income tenants; thus, they are more likely to agree on reasonable rent increases for the purpose of saving time and reducing emotional stress. |
| Keywords: | Housing rents; nominal rigidities; turnover; grid pricing |
| JEL: | E31 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2014–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55292&r=ure |
| By: | Saniter, Nils (DIW Berlin); Siedler, Thomas (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the causal link between individuals' occupational knowledge, educational choices, and labor market outcomes. We proxy occupational knowledge with mandatory visits to job information centers (JICs) in Germany while still attending school. Exogenous variation in the location and timing of JIC openings allow estimating causal effects in a difference-in-difference setup. Combining linked survey-administrative data with data on JICs permits to detect whether individuals benefited from the comprehensive information service when they were young. The results suggest that individuals, who went to school in administrative districts with a JIC, have higher educational attainments and a smoother transfer to the labor market than students who did not have access to these facilities. However, we find no effects on individuals' earnings in their first job or later in life. Overall, our results confirm the importance of policies that promote occupational knowledge among young adults. |
| Keywords: | education, uncertainty, job matching, information, job information centers |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8100&r=ure |
| By: | Ambec, Stefan; Kervinio, Yann |
| Abstract: | We consider the decentralized provision of a global public good with local external- ities in a spatially explicit model. Communities decide on the location of a facility that benefits everyone but exhibits costs to the host and its neighbors. They share the costs through transfers. We examine the cooperative game associated with this so-called NIMBY ("Not In My Back-Yard") problem. We derive and discuss conditions for core solutions to exist. These conditions are driven by the temptation to exclude groups of neighbors at any potential location. We illustrate the results in different spatial settings. In particular, we construct a hypothetical example on a real administrative unit in which the core is shown to be empty. These results clarify how property rights can affect cooperation and shed further light on a limitation of the Coase theorem. |
| Keywords: | NIMBY, externality, Coase theorem, pollution, waste, core, cooperative game, spatial model. |
| JEL: | C71 D62 Q53 R53 |
| Date: | 2014–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:28041&r=ure |
| By: | Gillet, Holger; Pauser, Johannes (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines efficiency in public input provision in two large jurisdictions with imperfect labour markets. It analyses how equilibrium capital tax rates and public input provision levels differ between asymmetric jurisdictions that can strategically influence the interest rate on the common capital market in an international tax competition setting. In contrast to the scenario assuming competitive labour markets, the non-cooperative equilibrium is inefficient also when governments have capital and head taxes at disposal. As a source of both the distortion in the capital allocation between jurisdictions and the inefficiency in public input provision, which can be determined in at least one of the jurisdictions, we identify the governments' incentives to decrease unemployment, and a pecuniary externality [De- Pater, J., Myers, G., 1994. Strategic capital tax competition: a pecuniary externality and a corrective device. Journal of Urban Economics 36, 66-78.] in both jurisdictions. Efficiency in public input provision can be restored, however, if the set of fiscal instruments available for regional policy makers is extended by a labour tax. |
| JEL: | H21 H71 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201411&r=ure |
| By: | Siegert, Caspar; Ulbricht, Robert |
| Abstract: | We explore how pricing dynamics in the European airline industry vary with the competitive environment. Our results highlight substantial variations in pricing dynamics that are consistent with a theory of intertemporal price discrimination. First, the rate at which prices increase towards the scheduled travel date is decreasing in competition, supporting the idea that competition restrains the ability of airlines to price-discriminate. Second, the sensitivity to competition is substantially increasing in the heterogeneity of the customer base, reecting further that restraints on price discrimination are only relevant if there is initial scope for price discrimination. These patterns are quantitatively important, explaining about 83 percent of the total within flight price dispersion, and explaining 17 percent of the observed cross-market variation of pricing dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Airline industry, capacity constraints, dynamic oligopoly pricing, intertemporal price dispersion, price discrimination. |
| JEL: | D43 D92 L11 L93 |
| Date: | 2014–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:28015&r=ure |
| By: | Stenkula, Mikael (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the development and role of the real estate tax in Sweden between 1862 and 2010. The possibility to tax real estate has been used at both the local and state level throughout history. Its importance is difficult to assess directly due to limited data availability and the specific construction of the local tax system after 1920. The real estate tax was supposed to provide the municipalities with a stable tax base, but its importance in this role seems to have diminished over time. After the tax reform of 1990–1991 real estate tax was levied exclusively at the national level. At most, this tax contributed to no more than five percent of total central government tax revenues, and the amount raised occasionally exceeded 1 percent of GDP. In 2008, part of the tax was transformed to a “local fee”. |
| Keywords: | Real estate tax; Property tax; Tax reforms |
| JEL: | H20 N43 N44 |
| Date: | 2014–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1018&r=ure |
| By: | Bossler, Mario (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Using new and unique linked employer-employee data from Germany, I examine the extent to which immigrants sort into worse-paying establishments and worse job positions within establishments. The results demonstrate that recent immigrants are particularly likely to work at low-paying workplaces. Similarly, when examining job positions within establishments, I find that immigrants are employed in lower hierarchical positions. Both the non-random sorting across establishments and the hierarchical sorting within establishments explain much of the immigrant-native wage differential. Policy measures designed to address the wage differential should therefore address immigrants' access to well-paying workplaces and job positions. With respect to career development, immigrant participation in performance assessments is low, and immigrants feel disadvantaged in personnel decisions, which in turn might be relevant channels that explain immigrants' under-representation in well-paid positions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201410&r=ure |
| By: | Richard Almy |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the following questions about immovable property taxation in OECD and partner countries: What is valued? How is it valued? And who values? It draws on published information and data on property tax policy and administration in 172 countries. It focuses on value-based taxes and the features of mass valuation systems. Main system options (such as whether taxes are based on annual rental values or capital values as reflected by sales prices) are described and briefly evaluated. It notes that valuation practices frequently ignore revaluation requirements; it identifies four areas for improving valuation performance based on the experiences of leading systems. |
| Keywords: | taxation, taxes, tax system, immovable property tax, property tax, Land tax, real estate |
| JEL: | H10 H11 H20 R51 |
| Date: | 2014–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ctpaab:19-en&r=ure |
| By: | Mukherjee, Soumyatanu; Zafar, Sameen |
| Abstract: | This analysis, in terms of a four-sector static general equilibrium framework, models the urban informal sector for a typical developing economy with labour market distortion in the form of unionised urban sector labour market and capital market segmentation between urban informal and formal credit markets. It has been highlighted in different literature that growth experience in the South Asian countries like India or Pakistan during liberalised regime have primarily been driven by the productivity take-off in the traded sectors. This theoretical analysis offers another attempt to predict the implications of technological progress in the traded formal sectors on informal wage, taking into consideration that real wage is a reasonable benchmark to measure the well-being of the economically marginalised people living under informal arrangements. The key model propositions are further exemplified by a sensitivity analysis using plausible ranges of parameter values for India. We also provide empirical evidence using data on twenty-seven Indian States (including one Union Territory) between 1989 and 2010 on informal wages, capital stocks in informal and formal zones and value-additions in the formal segment to substantiate the model prediction on informal wage depicted in our numerical exercise, which shows that the growth in informal wage could reasonably be linked to the productivity surge in the formal sectors, while greater capital accumulation in the informal units over the formal counterparts has further aggravated this upswing in informal wages. |
| Keywords: | Poverty; Technological Progress; Informal Wage; General Equilibrium |
| JEL: | E26 F11 F16 I32 O17 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:55297&r=ure |
| By: | Gray, Elie; Grimaud, André |
| Abstract: | What is the social value of innovations in Schumpeterian growth models? This issue is tackled by introducing the concept of Lindahl equilibrium in a standard endogenous growth model with vertical innovations which is extended by explicitly considering knowledge diffusion. Assuming that knowledge diffuses on a Salop (1979) circle allows us to formalize the creation of the pools of knowledge in which research and development (R&D) activities draw from to produce innovations. Within this model, we compare two equilibria. The standard Schumpeterian equilibrium à la Aghion & Howitt (1992) is mainly characterized by incomplete markets since knowledge is not priced. It provides the usual private value of innovations. The Lindahl equilibrium is a benchmark enabling us to compute the system of prices that sustains the first-best social optimum, and thus to define and to determine analytically the social value of innovations. It provides a suitable methodology for revisiting issues involving the presence of knowledge, often studied in the industrial organization and endogenous growth literatures. This comparison sheds a new light on the consequences of non-rivalry of knowledge and of market incompleteness on innovators’ behavior in the Schumpeterian equilibrium. We notably revisit the issues of Pareto sub-optimality and of R&D incentives in presence of cumulative innovations. Basically, the key externality triggered by market incompleteness implies that knowledge creation is indirectly funded by means of intellectual property rights on rival goods embodying knowledge. Therefore, because the private value of innovations differs from the social one, innovators are not given the optimal incentives. |
| Keywords: | Schumpeterian growth theory - Lindahl equilibrium - Social value of innovations - Pareto sub-optimality - Cumulative innovations - Knowledge spillovers |
| JEL: | D52 O31 O33 O40 O41 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:27915&r=ure |
| By: | James CUST (University of Oxford & University of Luxembourg); Ridwan D. RUSLI (Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637332.) |
| Abstract: | We examine the economic consequences of resource extraction and associated revenue windfalls, measured at the subnational level. Our analysis focuses on variations across Indonesian districts and municipalities to estimate the spillover effects on economic activity, measured in terms of local GDP. Two important channels are identified: direct spillover eects from extraction activity, and the fiscal spillovers from local government spending associated with revenue windfalls from extraction activity. We use Indonesia's fiscal sharing rules to quantify and disentangle these two channels by application of an instrumental variable. We show that the main economic gains accrue via transfers to, and spending by, local government. While direct project-level investments and production contribute to measures of overall GDP, these are found to be largely due driven by the value of oil extraction, with only limited evidence for a direct impact on non-oil GDP. In contrast to other works, it appears that regionally decentralized government spending can be growth-enhancing over the decade surveyed. We argue that resource endowments do contribute to increased economic activity at the subnational level in Indonesia, but may lower the overall growth eect of spending. |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nan:wpaper:1402&r=ure |
| By: | Anastasiia Konstantynova; James Wilson |
| Abstract: | This working paper is a part of the dissertation research and is determined to outline and deliver key triggers of a successful regional cluster policy. It first makes a broad reflection on the theory of cluster and cluster policy concepts and subsequently focuses on elaboration of an analytical scheme for policy analysis. The development of the framework is proceeded into two steps, first of all the stages of cluster policy process are defined. After that key factors affecting policy building are selected from various existing theoretical and practical cluster policy cases and later on attributed to a particular stage of cluster policy. The advantages of the designed analytical approach are in its ability to offer a deeper and more comprehensive view on different cluster policies while making comparisons and generating policy learning. Finally the framework can also be applied as a toolbox for policy makers keen to identify strengths and weaknesses in their cluster policies. |
| Keywords: | cluster policy; regional policy; cluster theory; comparative policy studies |
| JEL: | R58 L52 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivc:wpaper:2014r01&r=ure |
| By: | Coibion, Olivier (UT Austin and NBER); Gorodnichenko, Yuriy (UC Berkeley and NBER); Kudlyak, Marianna (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond); Mondragon, John (UC Berkley) |
| Abstract: | One suggested hypothesis for the dramatic rise in household borrowing that preceded the financial crisis is that low-income households increased their demand for credit to finance higher consumption expenditures in order to "keep up" with higher-income households. Using household level data on debt accumulation during 2001-2012, we show that low-income households in high-inequality regions accumulated less debt relative to income than their counterparts in lower-inequality regions, which negates the hypothesis. We argue instead that these patterns are consistent with supply-side interpretations of debt accumulation patterns during the 2000s. We present a model in which banks use applicants’ incomes, combined with local income inequality, to infer the underlying type of the applicant, so that banks ultimately channel more credit toward lower-income applicants in low-inequality regions than high-inequality regions. We confirm the predictions of the model using data on individual mortgage applications in high- and low-inequality regions over this time period. |
| Keywords: | inequality; household debt; Great Recession |
| JEL: | D14 E21 E51 G21 |
| Date: | 2014–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedrwp:14-01&r=ure |