Four essays in empirical urban economics : evaluation of French regional policies[Quatre essais en économie urbaine empirique : évaluation de politiques d'aménagement du territoire]

This thesis evaluates four French urban and regional policies. It also covers three major issues in urban economics: the impact of transportation on the spatial distribution of employment and population, the elasticity of housing supply and urban segregation. First, the thesis focuses on the Regional Express Rail system. The improvement of public transport in the Paris region causes employment to grow in suburban municipalities. However, there is not effect on overall population growth but a possible gentrification effect nearby RER stations. Secondly, this thesis studies the role of high-speed rail in the spatial organization of multi-plant businesses. It shows that the reduction in travel time to their headquarters subsidiaries lead the affiliate to specialize in production activities, to the expense of management tasks. Then, this work assesses the impact of the French Urban Enterprise Zones. The first generation of this program have a massive impact on firm location and employment. However, it only slightly benefited to the local residents, highlighting a lack of targeting. The last chapter evaluates the effect of housing allowance on the level of rents and the supply of rental housing. It confirms that housing subsidies cause private rents to increase. The elasticity of housing supply remains low in the long term, since the upward effect does not vanish and the quantity and the quality of rental housing do not adjust.