45 research outputs found

    The Effect of Residential Investment on Nearby Property Values: Evidence from Cleveland, Ohio

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    This study analyzes the effect of both new and rehabilitation residential investment on nearby property values in Cleveland, Ohio. The methodology used is hedonic price regression with spatial lagged variables that are generated applying geographic information systems. There are four major findings. First, the effect of investment on property values is geographically limited. Second, new investment has a greater impact on nearby property values than rehabilitation. Third, there is evidence that new construction and rehabilitation have a significantly positive impact in low-income areas, as well as predominantly non-minority neighborhoods. Finally and most importantly, the research suggests that small-scale investment has no impact on nearby property values. Thus, investment policy, which promotes and encourages investments that are not sufficiently large, may not be able to improve tax bases and enhance neighborhoods. We also found that results could be misleading if spatial lagged variables are inappropriately measured.

    Paradoxes of Traffic Flow and Economics of Congestion Pricing

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    This paper utilizes a unique county-level dataset to examine technical efficiency and technology gap in China’s agriculture. We classify the counties into four regions with distinctive levels of economic development, and hence production technologies. A meta-frontier analysis is applied to the counties. We find that although the eastern counties have the highest efficiency scores with respect to the regional frontier but the northeastern region leads in terms of agricultural production technology nationwide. Meanwhile, the mean efficiency of the northeastern counties is particularly low, suggesting technology and knowledge diffusion within region might help to improve production efficiency and thus output.China’s grain production; County-level; Metafrontier; Stochastic production frontier; Technical efficiency

    Urban Land Issues and Policy Challenges in China’s Rapid Urbanization

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    This paper discusses land issues and attempts to explain why they are persistent and prevalent in Chinese cities We will demonstrate that the factors behind the land issues include land institution setting gradualism in reforms illdesigned policy instruments one-size-fits-all approaches to land management a fragmented planning system and development objectives that are conflicting among themselves at the national level We then discuss land policy challenges and unfinished reforms that deserve attention Land reforms underscore the balancing act required between the concerns about the protection of property rights and public interests They were meant to address the entitlement question of unearned land value increments minimize social welfare losses in farmland protection and add planning policy flexibility to cope with future development uncertainty Finally we illustrate the challenges in policy choices and the importance of the political will determination of top leaders at all levels of government in undertaking radical and fundamental land policy reforms Political will determination would be critical in land policy reforms because leaders will face rising political resistance and huge socioeconomic cost

    Policy and Planning Challenges to Promote Efficient Urban Spatial Development during the Emerging Rapid Transformation in China

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    This paper investigates the linkage between emerging urban spatial development and institutional arrangements in China. Emerging spatial patterns, which are prevalent and sizable so that any impacts will be substantial, include dispersed employment concentration, fragmented land development, over-scaled land development, leapfrogging development, and whack-a-mole development. From the institutional point of view, these patterns are associated with decentralization, fiscal incentives for local government, land regulations, and fragmented planning system. It is concluded that these emerging spatial patterns significantly affect long term city sustainable growth and comprehensive reforms are needed to promote efficient urban spatial forms. It is further concluded that labor division between planning and markets should be reshaped in determining urban spatial growth by shifting planning to focus on zoning that provides sufficient development room in a long term and making markets to decide the timing of land development

    Managing urban growth for efficiency in infrastructure provision: Dynamic capital expansion and urban growth boundary models

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    The purpose of this thesis is to examine the logic of urban growth management programs from the perspective of efficiency in infrastructure provision. Of the many urban growth management and control instruments, two instruments, capital facility plans and urban growth boundaries (UGBs), are analyzed in this thesis.To analyze the logic of capital facility plans and UGBs, the standard urban model is extended to include a public service produced with a continuously variable input and a lumpy infrastructure input. The lumpy investment input is fundamental to the model. Because infrastructure can be added only in large, lump-sum investments, the cost of providing the public service varies discontinuously over time. This discontinuity in public service cost serves as the logical foundation for capital facility planning and for managing urban growth using UGBs.To analyze the logic of capital facility planning, the rate of urban growth is initially viewed as exogenous, and local governments must choose the timing and sizing of investments in infrastructure. The model is then extended to include a fee which, under a balanced-budget constraint, must equal the average cost of providing the public service. In this model, therefore, the rate of growth is endogenous, and influenced by the timing and sizing of investments in infrastructure. When the balanced-budget constraint is relaxed, local governments are able to manage urban growth by setting the public service fee. In this model local governments maximize social welfare by making timely investment in infrastructure and by pricing the public service at marginal cost. The model reveals that the optimum rate of urban growth varies over time if investments in infrastructure are lumpy. To achieve efficiency in the utilization of infrastructure, local governments should set the public service fee so as to encourage urban growth when there is excessive infrastructure capacity and to discourage urban growth when capacity is diminished.To develop the logic of urban growth boundaries, local governments who make lumpy infrastructure investments are prevented from pricing the public service at marginal cost. Under this assumption, UGBs serve as an alternative instrument for managing the rate of urban growth. In the first model of UGBs, the level of infrastructure is fixed, the public service is priced at average cost, and the planning horizon is finite. This model demonstrates that under certain parameter values, UGBs can increase social welfare and that such UGBs exist, are unique, and durable. Examining the impacts of lumpy investments in infrastructure on the UGBs results in the four strategies that local governments can use to manage urban growth. In subsequent models local governments make lumpy infrastructure investments and impose urban growth boundaries recursively. The different orders of the recursive process yield different recursive models such as Capacity-Boundary vs. Boundary-Capacity models. Finally models integrating the capital facility plans and UGBs are developed, based on an assumption that local governments make good use of all available instruments at the same time to maximize social welfare. The properties of these models are illustrated using numerical simulations.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

    Policy and Planning Challenges to Promote Efficient Urban Spatial Development during the Emerging Rapid Transformation in China

    No full text
    This paper investigates the linkage between emerging urban spatial development and institutional arrangements in China. Emerging spatial patterns, which are prevalent and sizable so that any impacts will be substantial, include dispersed employment concentration, fragmented land development, over-scaled land development, leapfrogging development, and whack-a-mole development. From the institutional point of view, these patterns are associated with decentralization, fiscal incentives for local government, land regulations, and fragmented planning system. It is concluded that these emerging spatial patterns significantly affect long term city sustainable growth and comprehensive reforms are needed to promote efficient urban spatial forms. It is further concluded that labor division between planning and markets should be reshaped in determining urban spatial growth by shifting planning to focus on zoning that provides sufficient development room in a long term and making markets to decide the timing of land development.urban spatial growth patterns; decentralization; fragmented planning; China

    Traffic Paradoxes and Economic Solutions

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    ABSTRACT: Previous studies on traffic congestion have emphasized supply-side instruments, such as the expansion of road capacity and improving the management of traffic. However, researchers on transportation have identified several paradoxes in which the usual remedy for congestion—expanding the road system—is ineffective or even counterproductive. This paper presents three paradoxes of traffic flow in their general form and provides economic solutions to overcome them, with an emphasis on demand-side policies by examining the behavior of commuters and using pricing mechanisms. KEYWORDS: Congestion pricing, externality, traffic paradoxe
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