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Curbing excess sprawl with congestion tolls and urban boundaries

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  • Anas, Alex
  • Rhee, Hyok-Joo

Abstract

Using an urban land use model in which jobs and residences are spatially dispersed and mixed, we treat the general equilibrium of land, labor and product markets and the trade-off between labor supply, commuting and discretionary travel. We show that the decentralization of population and of jobs shortens commutes while increasing the number of discretionary trips and the time spent on them. Un-priced traffic congestion causes an excess urban sprawl reflected in an average personal daily travel time 13% or 8 minutes too long. Efficiency gains that curb this excess sprawl come from congestion tolls on traffic. To get the same travel improvement, a Portland-style urban boundary would directly limit urban size by a huge greenbelt. This entails a deadweight loss almost 70 times the efficiency gains from tolls. Urban boundaries can be efficient if urban workers greatly value the greenbelt or the urban compactness it creates as a pure public good. Nevertheless, such efficient boundaries increase congestion and tolls are still needed to reduce travel times.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Regional Science and Urban Economics.

Volume (Year): 36 (2006)
Issue (Month): 4 (July)
Pages: 510-541

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Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:36:y:2006:i:4:p:510-541

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Anas, Alex & Timilsina, Govinda R. & Zheng, Siqi, 2009. "An analysis of various policy instruments to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in Beijing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5068, The World Bank.
  2. Safirova, Elena A. & Houde, Sébastien & Harrington, Winston, 2008. "Marginal Social Cost Pricing on a Transportation Network: Comparison of Second-Best Policies," Discussion Papers dp-07-52, Resources For the Future.
  3. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Hirte, Georg, 2009. "How does the household structure shape the urban economy?," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 07/09, Dresden University of Technology, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
  4. Jan K. Brueckner, 2005. "Urban Growth Boundaries: An Effective Second-Best Remedy for Unpriced Traffic Congestion?," Working Papers 050610, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
  5. Bento, Antonio M. & Franco, Sofia F. & Kaffine, Daniel, 2011. "Is there a double-dividend from anti-sprawl policies?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 135-152, March.
  6. Georg Hirte & Stefan Tscharaktschiew, 2011. "Income tax deduction of commuting expenses and tax funding in an urban CGE study: the case of German cities," ERSA conference papers ersa11p274, European Regional Science Association.
  7. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan & Hirte, Georg, 2009. "An urban general equilibrium model with multiple household structures and travel mode choice," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 06/09, Dresden University of Technology, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
  8. Berliant, Marcus & Wang, Ping, 2007. "Urban growth and subcenter formation: A trolley ride from the Staples Center to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl," MPRA Paper 2770, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Bento, Antonio M. & Franco, Sofia F. & Kaffine, Daniel, 2011. "Welfare Effects of Anti-Sprawl Policies in the Presence of Urban Decline," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 40(3), December.
  10. Anas, Alex & Rhee, Hyok-Joo, 2007. "When are urban growth boundaries not second-best policies to congestion tolls?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 263-286, March.
  11. Anas, Alex & Pines, David, 2008. "Anti-sprawl policies in a system of congested cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 408-423, September.
  12. Candau, Fabien, 2006. "The Spatial and Public Economics of Regions, a Theoretical and Empirical Survey," MPRA Paper 1153, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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