Provision of urban green spaces: Some insights from economics

Abstract The social demand for urban green spaces (UGSs) is increasing as a result of rapid urbanisation. To ensure the efficiency of public spending, their provision should be based on economic criteria. We highlight a range of issues in UGS policies and provide some economic instruments. UGSs confer costs and benefits that are not always taken into consideration. They lead to market failures as markets are not efficient in allocating them in a way that maximises their social value. First, we discuss how economics can be used to answer the question of public or private provision. Next we present methodologies to elicit the total economic value of UGSs. We then show how the public provision can result in non-optimal situations traducing the strategic behaviours of elected representatives. Finally, we discuss some key points within UGS production and maintenance as well as the main tradeoffs in terms of public policy

Politiques publiques et espaces verts urbains

Le paysage est une construction politique, culturelle et économique des rapports qu'entretiennent les sociétés humaines à l'espace. L'approche économique permet d'éclairer certains mécanismes liés à l'évolution et l'organisation du paysage

Capitalization of green spaces into housing values in the city of Angers: a hedonic approach

National audienc

Contesting longstanding conceptualisations of urban green space

Ever since the Victorian era saw the creation of “parks for the people,” health and wellbeing benefits have been considered a primary benefit of urban parks and green spaces. Today, public health remains a policy priority, with illnesses and conditions such as diabetes, obesity and depression a mounting concern, notably in increasingly urbanised environments. Urban green space often is portrayed as a nature-based solution for addressing such health concerns. In this chapter, Meredith Whitten investigates how the health and wellbeing benefits these spaces provide are limited by a narrow perspective of urban green space. Whitten explores how our understandings of urban green space remain rooted in Victorian ideals and calls into question how fit for purpose they are in twenty-first-century cities. Calling on empirical evidence collected in three boroughs in London with changing and increasing demographic populations, she challenges the long-held cultural underpinnings that lead to urban green space being portrayed “as a panacea to urban problems, yet treating it as a ‘cosmetic afterthought’” (Whitten, M, Reconceptualising green space: planning for urban green space in the contemporary city. Doctoral thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, U.K. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/. Accessed 12 Jun 2019, 2019b, p 18)

Farmland rental prices in GM soybean areas of Argentina : do contractual arrangements matter ?

We study the determinants of rental prices of farmland in the Argentinean Pampas. In particular, we examine the value of lease contract characteristics within a hedonic price framework, while controlling for other potential sources of variation. Using first-hand data for 255 parcels, our results indicate that both short-term contracts and contracts with sowing pools push rental prices upwards. We also find that soybean yields have a significant impact on land rental rates. These results suggest that if Argentina intends to protect the enormous natural advantage it has for agricultural production, it should consider strictly regulating land rental contracts