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Anti-sprawl policies in a system of congested cities

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  • Anas, Alex
  • Pines, David

Abstract

Armed with recurring analyses since the mid 1960s, economists believe that the under-pricing of traffic congestion in urban areas causes not only excessive travel but also excessively low land use densities and excessively spread out cities, a condition popularly known as urban sprawl. This conclusion is derived from analyses of a single monocentric city. We extend the analysis to a system of two asymmetric monocentric cities closed in aggregate population, differing by their amenity. In this setup, we analyze the effect of optimally tolling traffic congestion, or of optimally determined urban growth boundaries (UGBs), a constrained optimum regime that can also be implemented by taxes and subsidies on land. We prove that either policy regime may expand aggregate urban land use relative to laissez-faire. This is certainly true when the elasticity of substitution between lot size and other goods is sufficiently small and/or the cities are sufficiently asymmetric in their amenities. In both cases, the inter-city expansive effect of tolling, or of the UGB regime on aggregate urban land use outweighs the contractive intra-city effect (which is the only effect considered in earlier studies). Only when the elasticity of substitution is sufficiently large and/or the cities are sufficiently symmetric, the intra-city contractive effects of tolling or of the UGBs on aggregate land use, dominate the inter-city expansive effect, validating the earlier belief. These, properties are illustrated in simulations which supplement our proofs.

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Bibliographic Info

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

Volume (Year): 38 (2008)
Issue (Month): 5 (September)
Pages: 408-423

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Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:38:y:2008:i:5:p:408-423

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/regec

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References

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  1. Paul Cheshire & Stephen Sheppard, 2001. "The Welfare Economics of Land Use Planning," Department of Economics Working Papers 2001-03, Department of Economics, Williams College.
  2. Marcy Burchfield & Henry G. Overman & Diego Puga & Matthew A. Turner, 2006. "Causes of Sprawl: A Portrait from Space," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 121(2), pages 587-633, May.
  3. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2004. "Sprawl and urban growth," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 56, pages 2481-2527 Elsevier.
  4. Avinash Dixit, 1973. "The Optimum Factory Town," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 4(2), pages 637-654, Autumn.
  5. Son, Jae-Young & Kim, Kyung-Hwan, 1998. "Analysis of Urban Land Shortages: The Case of Korean Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 362-384, May.
  6. Anas, Alex & Rhee, Hyok-Joo, 2006. "Curbing excess sprawl with congestion tolls and urban boundaries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 510-541, July.
  7. Wilson, John Douglas, 1987. "Trade in a Tiebout Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 431-41, June.
  8. Chang-Moo Lee & Peter Linneman, 1998. "Dynamics of the Greenbelt Amenity Effect on the Land Market-The Case of Seoul's Greenbelt," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 107-129.
  9. Ashenfelter, Orley, 1976. "On the interpretation of urban density functions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 82-87, January.
  10. White, Lawrence J., 1977. "A further note on density functions and average distance from the center," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 218-219, April.
  11. Thomas J. Nechyba & Randall P. Walsh, 2004. "Urban Sprawl," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 177-200, Fall.
  12. Arnott, Richard J., 1979. "Unpriced transport congestion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 294-316, October.
  13. Bento, Antonio M. & Franco, Sofia F. & Kaffine, Daniel, 2006. "The efficiency and distributional impacts of alternative anti-sprawl policies," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 121-141, January.
  14. 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.
  15. Wheaton, William C., 1998. "Land Use and Density in Cities with Congestion," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 258-272, March.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Wouter Vermeulen & Jan Rouwendal, 2008. "Urban Expansion or Clustered Deconcentration?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-043/3, Tinbergen Institute.
  2. 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.
  3. Jan K. Brueckner & Robert W. Helsley, 2009. "Sprawl and Blight," Working Papers 091003, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
  4. Wouter Vermeulen, 2011. "Agglomeration Externalities and Urban Growth Controls," CPB Discussion Paper 191, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
  5. Wouter Vermeulen, 2011. "Agglomeration Externalities and Urban Growth Controls," SERC Discussion Papers 0093, Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE.
  6. Groves, Jeremy R., 2009. "The impact of positive property tax differentials on the timing of development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 739-748, November.

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