What are public services worth, and to whom ? Non-parametric estimation of capitalization in Pune

The availability and quality of basic public services are important determinants of urban quality of life. In many cities, rapid population growth and fiscal constraints are limiting the extent to which urban governments can keep up with increasing demand for these services. It therefore becomes important to prioritize provision of those services to best reflect local demand. The authors present a strategy to estimate the demand for public services, which is sensitive to heterogeneity in preferences across types of households, and the nonparametric estimation addresses problems arising from functional form restrictions. Using data from Pune, India, they estimate the demand for public services, as represented by the marginal change in the self-assessed monthly rental price of dwellings from the services. The authors find that the value of publicly provided services accruing to the poor is greater than that going to wealthier households, and even untargeted across-the-board investment in specific services can be progressive.Housing&Human Habitats,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Management and Reform

New trends on urban goods movement: Modelling and simulation of e-commerce distribution

In this paper, a modelling framework to complete the recent scientific works on urban goods modelling is proposed. More precisely, we introduce a substitution procedure that estimates the number of trips and the corresponding travelled distances for shopping drive, home delivery and reception points' strategies. Moreover, an appraisal of scenarios is proposed in order to study how these three new forms of proximity delivery services impact on the overall urban goods movement distribution. Starting from four extreme situations, we introduce more realistic scenarios in order to find a suitable combination of delivery strategies. All the scenarios are simulated using the proposed framework, and the main traffic issues related to e-commerce distribution channel are discussed. The best realistic combination promotes the joint usage of home deliveries and proximity reception points and allows a reduction of about 13% of the road occupancy rates in urban areas.urban goods movement, modelling, shopping trips, e-commerce

Information-based instruments for improved urban management

The task of urban managers is to ensure the provision of basic urban services, such as water, waste removal, security, transport, and an environment conducive to economic activity, while maintaining fiscal sustainability of city operations. City managers in developing countries face increasing pressure in achieving these goals because of rapid urbanization, the larger responsibilities following decentralization, and the economic challenges of globalization. Based on experience in Bangalore, India, the authors argue that effective, forward-looking urban management requires a much better information infrastructure than is currently available in most cities.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Decentralization,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform

Rural development policy and the provision of public goods: challenges for evaluation

Environmental “public goods” generated by agricultural land use are discussed in terms of their conceptual underpinnings and how they have been addressed to date in European Union policy for agriculture and rural development. The current debate on CAP reform has intensified the already considerable debate over how these goods should be valued, and how the relevant policy measures should be evaluated. Against this background, a number of methodological and practical issues for evaluation are discussed, including accounting for spatial scale and diversity, the estimation of use and non-use values, governance, potential conflict between “public goods” and their marketisation, and accounting for the marginal effects of rural development policy on environmental assets and their values.public goods, evaluation, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Examination of US college textbook prices

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015College textbook prices are investigated in detail using an Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration. This technique allows for the examination of short and Long run affects to prices brought upon by changes in personal income, college enrollment, input Prices and changes in corporate profit. The 2008 economic downturn and the introduction of the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act have also been included in this analysis as factors Affecting price. The results of my analysis show that supply factors are stronger determinants in The long run changes of textbook prices, while in the short run, both supply and demand factors Are determinants of textbook prices. Both 2008 market shocks also were found to have negative Effects on prices in the college textbook market.1. Introduction -- 2. Background information -- 2.1 Literature review -- 2.2 Trends in college tuition and textbooks -- 2.3 The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 -- 3. The model and the method -- 3.1 A price model of US college textbooks -- 3.2 The ARDL modelling -- 4. Variables and data sources -- 5. Empirical results -- 6. Conclusions and policy implications -- 7. Appendix

The Visible Hand: Race and Online Market Outcomes

We examine the effect of race on market outcomes by selling iPods through local online classified advertisements throughout the United States in a year-long field experiment. Each ad features a photograph of the product being held by a dark- or light-skinned (“black” or “white”) hand. To provide context, we also consider a group of sellers against whom buyers might statistically discriminate for similar reasons: white sellers with wrist tattoos. Black sellers do worse than white sellers on a variety of market outcome measures: They receive 13% fewer responses and 17% fewer offers. These effects are strongest in the Northeast, and are similar in magnitude to those associated with the display of a wrist tattoo. Conditional on receiving at least one offer, black sellers also receive 2–4% lower offers, despite the selfselected—and presumably less biased—pool of buyers. In addition, buyers corresponding with black sellers exhibit lower trust: They are 17% less likely to include their name in e-mails, 44% less likely to accept delivery by mail, and 56% more likely to express concern about making a long-distance payment. We find evidence that black sellers suffer particularly poor outcomes in thin markets; it appears that discrimination may not “survive” in the presence of significant competition among buyers. Furthermore, black sellers do worst in the most racially isolated markets and markets with high property crime rates, consistent with channels through which we might expect statistical discrimination to operate.race, advertising

Tenure, Divesity, and commitment - community participation for urban service provision

What factors influence community participation in the delivery of urban services? In particular, does security of tenure enhance the probability of participation as it provides individuals with incentives to act collectively in pursuit of a common objective? And are collective efforts less likely to succeed when there is a high degree of heterogeneity in culture or endowments among community members? The authors use household level survey data for Bangalore, India, to show that tenure security has a significant impact on the willingness of residents to participate even when neighborhoods are diverse in terms of their cultural background and welfare status. Their findings suggest that participation is possible in heterogeneous communities when it is a means to a common objective and not a goal by itself.Community Development and Empowerment,Housing&Human Habitats,Social Capital,Decentralization,Health Economics&Finance,Governance Indicators,Housing&Human Habitats,Community Development and Empowerment,Social Capital,Health Economics&Finance

Determinants of Industrial Property Rents in the Chicago Metropolitan Area

Urban economists have long understood the theoretical importance of transportation infrastructure and accessibility on the location choice of households and firms. We utilize a readily available data set of transaction rents in the Chicago metropolitan area to investigate the determinants of industrial property rents. Among the factors considered are proximity to transportation infrastructure, characteristics of the property, the term structure of lease agreements, and local attributes of the neighborhood. Empirical results suggest property, lease, and local demographics play important roles in determining rents. Despite the fact that industrial property tends to locate very close to rail lines and interstate highways, transportation infrastructure has much less influence. There is evidence that there is an upward sloping lease term structure premium and that the premium varies over time. The model is also used to develop a constant quality rent index for the Chicago commercial property market. Compared to average rents and asking rents, the estimated constant quality index shows a smaller run up in rents from 2003 through 2008 and a larger drop off in rents through the end of 2011