As the first to use an archival data set on historical land values of Berlin, Germany, from 1890 to 1936, we exploit exogenous variation in transport technology in order to test the validity of the monocentric city model. Endogenously determining the CBD, we conduct cross-section and timedifference analysis and model the land gradient in terms of straight-line distance and travel times. A counterfactual scenario indicates that a large proportion of urban decentralization is attributable to improvements in transport infrastructure. Controlling for spatial dependency, results suggest that the monocentric model fitted the city structure until the mid 20th century.
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Paper provided by KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich in its series KOF Working papers with number
08-208.
Find related papers by JEL classification: N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services N9 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History R33 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Production Analysis and Firm Location - - - Nonagricultural and Nonresidential Real Estate Markets O12 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
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