IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v95y2011i11p1358-1372.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The micro-empirics of collective action: The case of business improvement districts

Author

Listed:
  • Brooks, Leah
  • Strange, William C.

Abstract

This paper carries out a micro-level analysis of collective goods provision by focusing on the formation of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). The paper's theoretical and empirical analysis is unusually complete in that it considers the entire process of collective action, including participation in initial organization, voting, and ultimate impact on property values. BID benefits are shown to be highly uneven, and BID formation is not a Pareto improvement. Furthermore, large “anchor participants” benefit disproportionately, and are crucial for the viability of the institution, consistent with Olson (1965). These results, while demonstrated in a particular setting, apply to collective action more generally. Whenever a market failure leaves room for a collective response, the presence of anchor participants encourages collective action, and the action – even though in a sense voluntary – has uneven benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Brooks, Leah & Strange, William C., 2011. "The micro-empirics of collective action: The case of business improvement districts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1358-1372.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:95:y:2011:i:11:p:1358-1372
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.05.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272711000879
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.05.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandra E. Black, 1999. "Do Better Schools Matter? Parental Valuation of Elementary Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 577-599.
    2. Brooks, Leah, 2007. "Unveiling Hidden Districts: Assessing the Adoption Patterns of Business Improvement Districts in California," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(1), pages 5-24, March.
    3. Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 2000. "Potential competition and public sector performance," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 405-428, July.
    4. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    5. 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.
    6. David N. Figlio & Maurice E. Lucas, 2004. "What's in a Grade? School Report Cards and the Housing Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 591-604, June.
    7. Zeynep K. Hansen & Gary D. Libecap, 2004. "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(3), pages 665-694, June.
    8. Neumark, David & Kolko, Jed, 2010. "Do enterprise zones create jobs? Evidence from California's enterprise zone program," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 1-19, July.
    9. Leah Brooks, 2006. "Volunteering To Be Taxed: Business Improvement Districts And The Extra-Governmental Provision Of Public Safety," Departmental Working Papers 2006-04, McGill University, Department of Economics.
    10. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E, 1996. "Public Provision of Private Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 57-84, February.
    11. Helsley, Robert W., 2004. "Urban political economics," 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 54, pages 2381-2421, Elsevier.
    12. Brooks, Leah, 2008. "Volunteering to be taxed: Business improvement districts and the extra-governmental provision of public safety," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 388-406, February.
    13. Cheung, Ron, 2008. "The interaction between public and private governments: An empirical analysis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 885-901, May.
    14. Thomas Romer & Howard Rosenthal, 1979. "Bureaucrats Versus Voters: On the Political Economy of Resource Allocation by Direct Democracy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(4), pages 563-587.
    15. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    16. Agrawal, Ajay & Cockburn, Iain, 2003. "The anchor tenant hypothesis: exploring the role of large, local, R&D-intensive firms in regional innovation systems," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(9), pages 1227-1253, November.
    17. Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 1998. "Private government," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 281-304, June.
    18. Oates, Wallace E, 1969. "The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and the Tiebout Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(6), pages 957-971, Nov./Dec..
    19. Epple, Dennis & Nechyba, Thomas, 2004. "Fiscal decentralization," 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 55, pages 2423-2480, Elsevier.
    20. Eric D. Gould & B. Peter Pashigian & Canice J. Prendergast, 2005. "Contracts, Externalities, and Incentives in Shopping Malls," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 411-422, August.
    21. Dean H. Gatzlaff & G. Stacy Sirmans & Barry A. Diskin, 1994. "The Effect of Anchor Tenant Loss on Shopping Center Rents," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 9(1), pages 99-110.
    22. William C. Strange & Robert W. Helsley, 2000. "Social Interactions and the Institutions of Local Government," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1477-1490, December.
    23. Brueckner, Jan K., 2001. "Tax increment financing: a theoretical inquiry," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 321-343, August.
    24. Elisabeth R. Gerber & Jeffrey B. Lewis, 2004. "Beyond the Median: Voter Preferences, District Heterogeneity, and Political Representation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1364-1383, December.
    25. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E., 1996. "Ends against the middle: Determining public service provision when there are private alternatives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 297-325, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Guimarães, 2021. "Business Improvement Districts: A Systematic Review of an Urban Governance Model towards City Center Revitalization," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-24, September.
    2. Faggio, G., 2022. "The Impact of Business Improvement Districts on Crime," Working Papers 22/03, Department of Economics, City University London.
    3. Li Zhou, 2014. "Commercial Revitalization In Low-Income Urban Communities: The Holdup Problem And Urban Development Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 545-559, July.
    4. Miller, Mark V., 2013. "Valuing local collective goods: the case of business improvement districts," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150635, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. KONDO Keisuke & OKUBO Toshihiro, 2020. "The Revitalization of Shrinking Cities: Lessons from the Japanese Service Sector," Discussion papers 20050, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. Daniel Kudla & Michael Courey, 2019. "Managing territorial stigmatization from the ‘middle’: The revitalization of a post-industrial Business Improvement Area," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(2), pages 351-373, March.
    7. Rachel Soloveichik, 2019. "Accounting for Improved Brick and Mortar Shopping Experiences," BEA Working Papers 0165, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    8. Natalia Vasilenok, 2018. "What Drives the Private Provision of Security: Evidence from Russian Regions," HSE Working papers WP BRP 197/EC/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    9. Wonhyung Lee, 2016. "Struggles to form business improvement districts (BIDs) in Los Angeles," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(16), pages 3423-3438, December.
    10. John Charles Bradbury, 2022. "The impact of sports stadiums on localized commercial activity: Evidence from a Business Improvement District," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 194-217, January.
    11. Andrew Hanson, 2021. "Taxes and Economic Development: An Update on the State of the Economics Literature," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(3), pages 232-253, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meltzer, Rachel, 2012. "Understanding Business Improvement District formation: An analysis of neighborhoods and boundaries," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 66-78.
    2. Leah Brooks, 2006. "Volunteering To Be Taxed: Business Improvement Districts And The Extra-Governmental Provision Of Public Safety," Departmental Working Papers 2006-04, McGill University, Department of Economics.
    3. Helsley, Robert W. & Strange, William C., 2005. "Mixed markets and crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(7), pages 1251-1275, July.
    4. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Ferreira, Fernando, 2015. "Causal Inference in Urban and Regional Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 3-68, Elsevier.
    5. Andrew Hanson, 2021. "Taxes and Economic Development: An Update on the State of the Economics Literature," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(3), pages 232-253, August.
    6. Brooks, Leah, 2008. "Volunteering to be taxed: Business improvement districts and the extra-governmental provision of public safety," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 388-406, February.
    7. Eric J. Brunner & Stephen L. Ross, 2007. "How Decisive Is the Decisive Voter?," Working papers 2007-28, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2008.
    8. Miller, Mark V., 2013. "Valuing local collective goods: the case of business improvement districts," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150635, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    10. Theodore M. Crone, 2006. "Capitalization of the quality of local public schools: what do home buyers value?," Working Papers 06-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    11. Elinder, Mikael & Persson, Lovisa, 2017. "House price responses to a national property tax reform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 18-39.
    12. Ron Cheung, 2005. "The Effect of Property Tax Limitations on Residential Private Governments," Working Papers wp2005_05_01, Department of Economics, Florida State University.
    13. Eric J. Brunner & Stephen L. Ross, 2009. "Is the Median Voter Decisive? Evidence of 'Ends Against the Middle' From Referenda Voting Patterns," Working papers 2009-02, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised May 2010.
    14. Brooks, Leah, 2007. "Unveiling Hidden Districts: Assessing the Adoption Patterns of Business Improvement Districts in California," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(1), pages 5-24, March.
    15. Edward L. Glaeser, 2012. "Urban Public Finance," NBER Working Papers 18244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Jon H. Fiva & Lars J. Kirkebøen, 2008. "Does the Housing Market React to New Information on School Quality?," CESifo Working Paper Series 2299, CESifo.
    17. Thomas J. Nechyba, 2003. "Centralization, Fiscal Federalism, and Private School Attendance," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(1), pages 179-204, February.
    18. Xuejuan Su & Huayi Yu, 2022. "Valuing elementary schools: evidence from public school acquisitions in Beijing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 1117-1141, October.
    19. Brunner, Eric J. & Ross, Stephen L., 2010. "Is the median voter decisive? Evidence from referenda voting patterns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 898-910, December.
    20. Xiao, Yue & Wen, Haizhen & Hui, Eddie C.M. & Zhou, Ganghua, 2022. "Dynamic capitalization effects of educational facilities during different market stages: An empirical study in Hangzhou, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:95:y:2011:i:11:p:1358-1372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.