Agri-environmental Policy and Urban Development Patterns: A General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper investigates the spatial effects that the provision of environmental public goods have on residential location choices in a suburban context. Specifically, a spatial general equilibrium framework is developed to analyze the consequences of adopting an agri-environmental policy promoting the provision of positive farming externalities. We use a static monocentric model of an open city where agricultural bid-rents and agricultural amenities vary endogenously in space, and where the positive externalities associated with agricultural production are valued by households. Consistent with empirical evidence of the potential side effects that conservation policies may have in terms of urbanization patterns and land price changes, we show that under certain conditions implementing an agri-environmental policy may promote additional suburban development. Moreover, we demonstrate that the emergence of disconnected suburban areas may be significantly influenced by the location of land regulated by an agri-environmental policy. Finally, we discuss distributional aspects and show that while introducing an agri-environmental policy has a negative impact on most residential land value, it can have positive effects on farmland and residential land located within the regulated areas, suggesting the non-neutrality of such policies regarding the agents’ assets

Determinants of urban sprawl in European cities

This paper provides empirical evidence that helps to answer several key questions relating to the extent and causes of urban sprawl in Europe. Building on the monocentric city model, this study uses existing data sources to derive a set of panel data for 282 European cities at three time points (1990, 2000 and 2006). Two indices of urban sprawl are calculated and respectively reflect changes in artificial area and the levels of urban fragementation for each city. These are supplemented by a set of data on various economic and geographical variables that might explain the variation of these indices. Estimating using a Hausman Taylor and random regressors to control the possible correlation between explanatory variables and unobservable city-level effects, we find that the fundamental conclusions of the standard monocentric model are valid in the European context for both indices. Although the variables generated by the monocentric model explain a large part of variation of artificial area, their explanatory power for the fragmentation is relatively low.Ce papier étudie les causes de l'étalement urbain dans le contexte européen. Sur la base d'un modèle de ville monocentrique, nous exploitons plusieurs sources de données portant sur 282 aires urbaines et trois périodes de références 1990, 2000 et 2006. Deux indicateurs de l'étalement ont été utilisés : la superficie artificialisée et fragmentation urbaine. Ces deux indicateurs ont été confrontés à un ensemble de variables économiques et géographiques. Afin de contrôler les corrélations possibles entre les variables explicatives et l'hétérogénéité des observations individuelles, nous avons utilisé à la fois une régression à la Hausman Taylor et une régression aléatoire. Bien que les principales conclusions du modèle monocentrique aient été confirmées, son pouvoir explicatif de la fragmentation est relativement faible