Urban Economics - Science topic

Hi Peter F. Colwell , the purpose of exactions is for fiscal sustainability and economic growth. The notion of fiscal sustainability is a field of analysis and recommendations of international agencies and many scholars. However, fiscal sustainability analyzed in most of the literature refers to the general control of public finances, especially in relation to public indebtedness. The answer to this question is brought by the Territorial Engineering that innovates in this field. It requires evaluating the fiscal sustainability of territorial programs and component projects. On fiscal sustainability, I recommend the following classic titles:

- BLANCHARD, O. J. (1990). Suggestions for a New Set of Fiscal Indicators, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 79, OECD Publishing.

- BUITER, W. H. (2004). Fiscal Sustainability. Paper presented at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies in Cairo on 19 October 2003. Revised in 2004. London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

- BURNSIDE, C. (2005). Fiscal Sustainability in Theory and Practice: A Handbook. Washington: The World Bank.

- CHALK, N, R. HEMMING (2000). Assessing Fiscal Sustainability in Theory and Practice. In: Banca d’Italia (2000): Fiscal Sustainability. Rome: Banca d´Italia. Web Document: http://www.bancaditalia.it/studiricerche/convegni/atti/fiscal_sust;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en

- INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (2002). Assessing Sustainability, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC. Also available at: http://www.imf.org/external/np/pdr/sus/2002/eng/052802.pdf.

- POLITO V, M WICKENS (2005). Measuring Fiscal Sustainability. Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis Conference Papers 2005. Castlecliffe: University Of St Andrews.

- TER-MINASSIAN T, M ALLEN (2004). Public Investment and Fiscal Policy. Washington: The International Monetary Fund.

- VICKERMAN R (2007). Recent Evolution of Research into the Wider Economic Benefits of Transport Infrastructure Investments. Discussion Paper N. 2007-9. Boston OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre.

- AGHION P, S N DURLAUF (2005): Handbook of Economic Growth. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier

- ALESINA A, R PEROTTI (1994): The Political Economy of Growth: A Critical Survey of the Recent Literature. World Bank Economic Review. 8, 3: 351-371

- BARRO R J, SALA-I-MARTIN X (2004): Economic Growth. 2nd Edition. Cambridge (Massachusetts,Estados Unidos): The MIT Press.

- EASTERLY W, R LEVINE (2001): What have we learned from a decade of empirical research on growth? It's Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models. World Bank Economic Review. 15: 177 - 219.

- KLENOW P J, A RODRÍGUEZ-CLARE (1997): Economic growth: A review essay. Journal of Monetary Economics 40,3:597-6

- PRITCHETT L (2000): Understanding Patterns of Economic Growth: Searching for Hills among Plateaus, Mountains, and Plains. World Bank Economic Review. 14: 221 - 250.

- ROMER P M (1990): Endogenous Technological Change. Part 2: The Problem of Development: A Conference of the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Systems. The Journal of Political Economy, 98 (5): S71-S102

- VAMVAKIDIS A (1998): Regional Integration and Economic Growth. World Bank Economic Review, May 1998; 12: 251 – 270.

- WONG P K, Y P HO and E AUTIO (2005). Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from GEM data. Small Business

Elena Andreyeva : Georgia State University, United States

Thank you Eduardo, but aren't specific parameters and values needed in the protocol?

You may be interested in this article as well which is also drawn from the Canadian context:

Webber, S. & Hernandez, T. (2016) Big box battles: the Ontario Municipal Board and large-format retail land-use planning conflicts in the Greater Toronto Area. International Planning Studies 21(2): 117-131.

Don't ask any questions. Instead, get the vehicle license numbers of people parked in the lot and the vehicles dropping off train travelers. From that, it may be possible to locate where the travelers originate. Use the data relating to these locations. Could this work?

Kindly try to find smart cities and urban areas − aquaponics as innovative urban agriculture

or COST FA 1305 please.

Best wishes!

Relevant papers introducing the perspective of urban economists on gentrification are:

Glaeser et al.: Consumer City

Glaeser homepage: http://scholar.harvard.edu/glaeser/home

A policy-oriented economic view:

A journal article presenting the up-to-date debate on gentrification in the US:

Kind regards

Peter

Lately, the political instability have been one of the most hindering factors for investment in Egypt. However, even 8-10 years ago, the price fluctuation in construction material (e.g. Reinforcement) stemming from market monopolies and the absence of market competitors have been also a major obstacle in the construction industry. Finally, the major planning indecisiveness of where and when developments should be located (especially in big cities like Cairo & Alexandria) can also represent a great threat for investing in certain locations with an uncertain developing future.  

Dear Richard,

 I use in my teaching some discussions on the notion that can be found in:

* Vallance, Perkins and Dickson, "What is social sustainabililty? A clarification of concept"

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.01.002

* Littig and Griessler, "Social Sustainability: A Catchword between political pragmatism and social theory"

* Dempsey et al., "The social dimension of urban dvt"

DOI: 10.1002/sd.417

* Parra and Moulaert, "La nature de la durabilité sociale : vers une lecture socioculturelle du développement territorial durable"

and

* Mario Polese and Richard Stren, The Social Sustainability of Cities, U. of T., 2000

I hope these references are useful to you

Best regards

d.

Hello Tathagato

There is a new book by Joel Stillerman about global approach to consumption. 

We have been working on consumer culture from a Latin american perspective, you could take a look or ask me for further references. What are you studying specifically?

Dear  Shubhajit Sadhukhan 

In your research, for the experimental design and statistical analysis, you can use “Design-Expert” software. I explain that step by step in my article. You can see my new publication in below link.

Also, you can use "Taguchi method" for your research purpose.

I hope my articles; help you in your research field.

Good Luck

Victoria Transport Policy Institute from Canada write about TOD, made research and have quite interesting findings.

Regards

Višnja Kukoč

Dear Petr,

I'm affraid you are going to have to read papers in French, as it is in this specific linguistic context that the notion has been most studied. In addition to the work Olivier made and to the one by Davezie, I also use in my teaching papers by Eric Ambiaud (et al.):

and G. Dore:

Best regards

d.

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking about the difference(s) between the ways public agencies plan and the ways private companies do. If this is the focus of your question, then:

Putting aside all normative considerations (i.e. how "should" they do this, that, or the other), and  addressing only how they do do planning, here are some general observations.

► Whereas public agencies must balance the equities, that is to say attend to the interests of most stakeholders (trading off, compromising, prioritizing, attempting to resolve conflicts, and so on), private companies look only after their own interests (a much simpler activity generally speaking);

► Whereas public planning agencies can only recommend courses of actions to the politically elected bodies in their jurisdiction, in private companies the lines of command and the nature of the processes that take place in the making of final decisions tend to be more direct and less at odds with the 'values' of the planning staff; and,

► Obviously, public agencies finance their planning projects from taxes. In contrast, private companies treat the costs of planned activities as any other item of cost (to be evaluated in terms of the 'bottom line').

There are many more differences, of course, but these are the ones that seem most generalizable.

Engaging youth as a direct substitute for local workers who would otherwise do the job is more job displacement than job creation—some distributional effects that may or may not add value, but little if any gain in economic productivity.

Youth employment schemes designed to build human capital are another matter. Challenging youth to design projects and their implementation (including budgeting), either narrowly construed around cleaning up the community or more broadly construed, not only produces a community service but also builds capacity, both for individual youth and for communities in developing an infrastructure to tap into opportunities for direct citizen engagement in community building and problem solving. Such schemes do not substitute for larger scale government projects, but can fill a niche locally for smaller scale, citizen driven initiatives.

There are many such examples in local communities throughout the US and some of these have been workshopped and implemented in South Africa and and Tanzania. See

Building civic infrastructure: implementing community partnership grant programmes in South Africa Charles F. Adams · Michael E. Bell · Trevor Brown Public Administration and Development 10/2002; 22(4):293 - 302. DOI:10.1002/pad.232 · 0.70 Impact Factor

Dear Heath,

This book is interesting:

Post-Industrial Cities: Politics and Planning in New York, Paris, and London -  Paperback, 2014 by H. V. Savitch

Best Regards,

Vanessa

I'm not familiar with the two specific cases. However, in many cases the exploitation of agglomeration advantages from infrastructural is made through "hedonic price" approach, i.e. looking at housing differentials before/after the project or in project areas vs. other areas of the city. In practice, house price regressions are made controlling for proximity to infrastructure and other factors (house quality, size, district...): the parameter associated to proximity to infrastructure indicates the "premium" people are willing to pay, hence it gives an indication of the benefits associated with the infrastructure. The same you can do with commercial and other buildings. 

I first misunderstand the question, since "idealistic" is philosophical and not economic term. But as in answers I saw "inelastic", i will refer to it.

In the short run land supply (in the sense of sq. meters of housing) is indeed inelastic (at least in a city fully packed by buildings). In the medium term it becomes less inelastic if extra floors are build after. But there is some limit to population density in a city, because we need space for roads, pedestrian paths, some trees. I found that the maximally observed population density is about 40000 people per square kilometer. Even New York with its skyscrapers does not reach this density; it allows for some space free of buildings between them.

You study requires model re-specification procedure until the problem on identification of specific variables is resolved.

Dear Nayomi,

I believe that this material will help:

and this book:

by Felipe Hernandez,Peter Kellett,Lea Knudsen Allen

Regards,

Vanessa

The Complementarity between Cities and Skills  by Edward Glaeser (2009).

There's a projet in curse that studies simmilar questions for different european cities, it could worth to see their website: http://www.urbandivercities.eu/ 

I believe that entrepreneurship is quite heterogeneous and this is also the case for rural and urban areas. Thus, it is difficult to make categorical statements about  which of these rather broad types of territories are more conducive to innovation. We find in major urban areas significant sub-areas or neighborhoods where nothing much in term,s of innovation takes place, and the same is true in rural areas.

One of the most complicating factors is the fact that there are so-called rural areas within the urban spheres of influence so that entrepreneurs in some rural areas can take advantage of what the nearby urban agglomeration has to offer. Similarly, we find that there are many urban areas/cities where little in the way of economic development takes place, and while the local cultures may not lead to much innovative behavior, it may also be that other factors make it more difficult for entrepreneurs to engage in innovative behavior.

Finally, some of the most innovative environments are not associated with economic growth but rather economic development. And at the level of financing innovative entrepreneurial ventures, some rural territories can be as innovative as many of the urban territories.

We should perhaps stop talking about differences between rural and urban when it is obvious there is so much heterogeneity in each category.

Chris Bryant

northern and southern where, continent and country?

Studies into urban metabolic rates can help in outlining the causal links between urban infrastructure (sometimes proxied through urban built/roads etc.) and economic restructuring...

Office space construction can have a negative impact on the micro-climate of a city

by looking at regional and local budget data.  might start with tax sharing at the regional and local levls

Dear Sidney,

I would like to recommend my recent paper on tourism and simulacrum, where I discuss the "nudge perspective" to behavioral consistency that is needed for destination resilience (in tourism). The "behavioral turn" is embedded in the gamification perspective to destination development

Best Regards,

Bernard

Hi Linda,

If peoples perceptions influence behaviour, particularly in the absence of a supporting knowledge base, ie (experiential perceptions) it could have considerable influence on urban planning policies, guidelines, infrastructure included, particularly in smaller developing communities transitioning from historical roots to contemporary lifestyle choices through inflows of younger generational migration and retirees looking for alternatives. Whether stakeholders, or not at decision making level perceptions are part of the equation. Perceived community Identity, individual perceptions, resistance to change, possibly any change sort of fits in at this juncture. Decision making at base level involves community and ultimately decision makers need to go back with findings to that community. You may find plenty of scope within this topic. Infrastructure requirements and technological advance sometimes sit unhappily alongside unsustainable outdated building & landscape practices, similarly long held perceptions and habits take time to move forward.

Good luck & Cheers,

David

Dear Lawrence,

Perhaps, this could help for your research. One way to look at this issue is to study the percentage of transit passengers, who would take a taxi if transit services were unavailable ?

A survey done by FTA (2002) shows what respondents report they would do if transit service were unavailable: Drive (23%); Ride with someone (22%); Taxi (12%); Not make trip (21%); Walk (18%); Bicycle (4%).

At our University of Luxembourg we offer a Master in Geography and Spatial Planning and are closely collaborating with the Economics Department. Our prof Geoffrey Caruso has a strong background on spatial econometrics. 

The question you may want to examine revolves more around the necessary protections that need to be installed so that any exchange between the rural and urban stakeholders isn't exploitative, but of mutual benefit and understanding of the rules and benefits (expectations) of the interaction.

I do understand that this isn't how the rural and urban relationship has existed in the past, but it might be the way that we can envision it in the future.

Dear Denis, thanks for your feedback.

I was not precise I guess. I do not perceive world in a dichotomous way. What I meant was simply that we can observe malfunctioning planning systems worldwide. I could spend hours of telling stories how we have set it here in Poland (urban planning, dealing with construction permits - although Poland has improved recently by moving from 161 to 84 place in Doing Business ranking). Consequences are visible and discussed (traffic jams, urban sprawl, lack of parking places, extremely high density of new development), but I do not recall any scientific evidence that would discuss the link between planning /lackof planning and urban outcome (quality of living, real estate prices, etc.). On the other hand there is some interesting evidence that even precise planning can lead to urban failure (for example, Pruit Iggoe experiment). To sum it up, not going into dichotomies, do you recall any relevant articles that discusses the mechanisms (relations) between planning and city development, preferably in emerging economics setting?

Economic advantages of a high quality urban public realm

There have been suggestions that a higher quality public realm with a more attractive and people centred built environment has a positive impact on retail footfall and the value of retail and residential properties in general. Research by Sinnett et al (2011) shows that improvements in the walking environment have the potential to increase economic value and activity in a local area. Their research also points to the fact that pedestrian traffic is often undervalued by business owners and that a Sustrans study in Bristol shows that business owners overestimate the proportion of customers arriving by car by almost double (Sustrans, 2006).

Further to this, research carried out by CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) demonstrates that investment in design quality brings quantifiable financial returns and that people value improvements to their streets. The report titled ‘Paved with gold: the real value of good street design’ shows that better streets result in higher market prices for both retail properties and residential units (Commission for Architecture & the built Environment, 2007). The aim of the ‘Paved with gold’ research was to calculate the “extra financial value that good street design contributes, over average or poor design”.

Using the ‘Pedestrian Environment Review System’ or PERS developed by TRL limited (TRL Limited, 2012) CABE selected ten London high streets based on a certain criteria to ensure the sites were comparable. PERS evaluates both the place function and the link function of a street based a set of categories. For the CABE research the following headline PERS categories were used; 1) Effective width (of the footpaths), 2) Dropped Kerbs / gradients, 3) Obstructions, 4) Permeability, 5) Legibility, 6) Lighting, 7) Personal security, 8) Surface quality, 9) User conflict, 10) Maintenance, and 11) Quality of Environment. The results from a regression analysis carried out as part of this show that there is a relationship between the design quality of the street and the property values in these locations. The ‘Paved with Gold’ report states that for every point increase on the PERS scale, there is a corresponding increase of £13,600 in residential prices, and an increase of £25 per square metre in retail rent per year.

Therefore, across the ten streets, which are comparable in terms of socioeconomics, location, access and pedestrian activity, the streets with a higher quality urban environment generate greater monetary value for the business and residential properties in these areas, thus proving the economic value of a high quality public realm.

Growing out of this research, Transport for London (TfL), along with a range of partners including TRL Limited, Colin Buchanan and others, has developed the ‘Valuing Urban Realm (VUR) Toolkit’ to monetise the benefits of any proposed urban space improvements (Transport for London, 2012). The VUR Toolkit uses PERS and the associated categories listed above and provides a web based tool to “provide a complete user-friendly interface for local authorities, developers, academics and private individuals to evaluate proposed streetscape improvements, undertake cost-benefit analysis, develop a robust business case and justify investment in public realm projects” (ibid). The web tool allows individuals to enter baseline data about the project (existing pedestrian numbers, rental prices etc.) and also scenario / measured data in relation to the proposed/completed works. From this baseline and scenario/measured data the ‘VUR Toolkit’ provides feedback on a range of impacts including; Climate change, Economic Impact, Equality of opportunity, Quality of life and environment and , Safety, security and health. The toolkit also calculates total economic benefit from improving the public realm, total social benefits, total project costs and a benefit to cost ratio, among other calculated impacts.

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The above is an excerpt from a report carried out by TrinityHaus (www.trinityhaus.tcd.ie)Trinity College Dublin, regarding shared space design in Ireland through a Universal Design approach http://www.universaldesign.ie/newsandevents/launchofresearchonsharedspaces).The Cost- benefit relationship is an important part of this work as the creation of pedestrian friendly or a higher quality urban realm must economically sustainable as well as socially and environmentally sustainable.

References

COMMISSION FOR ARCHITECTURE & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2007. Paved with gold: The real value of good street design. In: DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT, T. A. T. R. (ed.). Commission for Architecture & the built Environment.

SINNETT, D., WILLIAMS, K., CHATTERJEE, K. & CAVILL, N. 2011. Making the Case for Investment in the Walking Environment. A review of the evidence. University of the West of England, Bristol

SUSTRANS 2006. Shoppers and how they travel - Information Sheet LN02. Sustrans Bristol.

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON. 2012. Valuing Urban Design [Online]. Available: https://toolkit.urban-realm.co.uk/ [Accessed 29-07-12 2012].

TRL LIMITED 2005. Report No 640 Pilot home zone schemes: evaluation of Morice Town, Plymouth.

TRL LIMITED. 2012. Streetaudit-pedestrian module-PERS [Online]. Available: http://www.trl.co.uk/pers.htm [Accessed 30-07-12 2012].

Maybe my paper can help