Determinants of Historic and Cultural Landmark Designation: Why We Preserve What We Preserve

There is much interest among cultural economists in assessing the effects of heritage preservation policies. There has been less interest in modeling the policy choices made in historic and cultural landmark preservation. This paper builds an economic model of a landmark designation that highlights the tensions between the interests of owners of cultural amenities and the interests of the neighboring community. We perform empirical tests by estimating a discrete choice model for landmark preservation using data from Chicago, combining the Chicago Historical Resources Survey of over 17,000 historic structures with property sales, Census, and other geographic data. The data allow us to explain why some properties were designated landmarks (or landmark districts) and others were not. The results identify the influence of property characteristics, local socio-economic factors, and measures of historic and cultural quality. The results emphasize the political economy of implementing preservation policies.heritage preservation policy, landmark designation

Making – or Picking – Winners: Evidence of Internal and External Price Effects in Historic Preservation Policies

Much has been written identifying property price effects of historic preservation policies. Little attention has been paid to the possible policy endogeneity in hedonic price models. This paper outlines a general case of land use regulation in the presence of externalities and then demonstrates the usefulness of the model in an instrumental-variables estimation of a hedonic price analysis – with an application to historic preservation in Chicago. The theoretical model casts doubt on previous results concerning price effects of preservation policies. The comparative statics identify some determinants of regulation that seem, on the face of it, most unlikely to also belong in a hedonic price equation. The analysis employs these determinants as instruments for endogenous regulatory treatment in a hedonic price analysis. OLS estimation of the hedonic offers results consistent with much of previous literature, namely that property values are higher for historic landmarks. In the 2SLS hedonic, robust estimates of the "own" price effect of historic designation are shown to be large and negative (approx. -27%) for homes in landmark districts. Further, significant and substantively important (positive) external price effects of landmark designations are found. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings for historic preservation.hedonics, built heritage, heritage valuation, real estate economics

Empowerment Zones, Neighborhood Change and Owner Occupied Housing

This paper examines the effects of a generous, spatially-targeted economic development policy (the federal Empowerment Zone program) on local neighborhood characteristics and on the neighborhood quality of life, taking into account the interactions amongst the policy, changes in neighborhood demographics and neighborhood housing stock. Urban economic theory posits that housing prices in a small area should increase as quality of life increases, because people will be more willing to pay to live in the area, but these changes in prices and quality of life will also affect the demographics of the population through sorting and the housing stock through reinvestment. Using census block-group-level data, we examine how housing prices respond to the Empowerment Zone policy intervention. Changes in the other dimensions of neighborhood quality (demographics and housing stock characteristics) will also help determine the total, or full effect on housing values of the policy intervention. This paper estimates these direct and indirect effects in a simultaneous equations setting, compares indirect and full effects, and examines the robustness of the effects to alternate estimation strategies. We find strong evidence for substantively large and highly significant direct price effects, while results suggest that the indirect effects are substantively small or even negative.economic development, empowerment zones, porperty values, household mobility, sorting

Ideas, Artifacts, and Facilities: Information as a Common-Pool Resource

The goal of this paper is to summarize the lessons learned from a large body of international, interdisciplinary research on common-pool resources (CPRs) in the past 25 years and consider its usefulness in the analysis of scholarly information as a resource. We will suggest ways in which the study of the governance and management of common-pool resources can be applied to the analysis of information and \u27the intellectual public domain.\u27 The complexity of the issues is enormous for many reasons: the vast number of players, multiple conflicting interests, rapid changes of technology, the general lack of understanding of digital technologies, local versus global arenas, and a chronic lack of precision about the information resource at hand. We suggest, in the tradition of Hayek, that the combination of time and place analysis with general scientific knowledge is necessary for sufficient understanding of policy and action. In addition, the careful development of an unambiguous language and agreed-upon definitions is imperative. As one of the framing papers for the Conference on the Public Domain, we focus on the language, the methodology, and outcomes of research on common-pool resources in order to better understand how various types of property regimes affect the provision, production, distribution, appropriation, and consumption of scholarly information. Our analysis will suggest that collective action and new institutional design play as large a part in the shaping of scholarly information as do legal restrictions and market forces

Finding an Impact of Preservation Policies: Price Effects of Historic Landmarks on Attached Homes in Chicago 1990-1999

The impact of landmark designation on prices of the property and its neighbors sits at the core of the policy debate and empirical research on historic preservation. Yet these studies suffer from serious methodological limitations and biases. First, as important unobserved characteristics likely correlate with landmark designation, an omitted-variable bias results. Second, if designations depend on property values or neighborhood housing market conditions, the endogenous selection process further undermines inferences about preservation policies’ effects. This article outlines more robust empirical strategies and presents new evidence on landmark designation effects on property values. For a sample of Chicago home sales during the 1990s, a hedonic price analysis suggests that landmark buildings and districts sell at a small premium. To address the omitted-variable bias, a repeat-sales approach demonstrates significant spillover effects of landmark designation on prices. These estimates are also robust to sample-selection bias and some forms of spatial autocorrelation

Energy efficiency as a business policy for eco-certified hotels

Purpose – Green business awareness has been steadily increasing among employers and guests, and a large number of green certificates for hotels are being developed around the world. However, Croatia has only about 40 certified green hotels with a "Sustainable Hotels" certificate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether these certified hotels operate in an energy- efficient way, and discover what the managers’ attitudes are towards hotel energy management. Design/Methodology – This study was conducted by sending an e-mail-based questionnaire to Croatian hotels with a “Sustainable Hotel” certificate. The questionnaire, based on a comprehensive literature review, was administered in two stages, and consisted of two groups of questions. The first group used closed-ended questions with a Likert scale, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). The second group used open-ended questions meant to explore the views of energy efficiency managers. Findings – When it comes to energy efficiency, Croatian hotels have not yet reached the EU level, but there is great potential for responsible energy management development. The results of this survey point to the fact that some hotels in Croatia see significant benefits in terms of attracting ecologically conscious guests, but also lower operating costs. From the questionnaires, it can be concluded that managers and hoteliers are insufficiently informed about energy efficiency or the measures necessary to achieve satisfactory energy savings in general. Originality of the research – Even without applying for the actual eco-label, eco-labelling criteria can be used as guidelines for improving the energy efficiency performance of a hotel. The obtained results represent a relevant information base necessary for managing energy savings and energy efficiency

Urban Transformation and Individual Responsibility: The Atlanta BeltLine

We consider the case of the proposed Atlanta BeltLine to shed light on what may be crucial limits to ethical decision making and responsible action in shaping or reshaping the built environment, especially as those limits enter into the lived experience of individual residents of metropolitan areas. Drawing from theoretical sources in the humanities and social sciences, we consider the scope and limits of responsible individual conduct within complex urban systems, and derive insights that may be of value to planners and others who have visions for urban transformation. We will also draw from the ongoing analysis of our survey of Atlanta area residents, for purposes of illustration