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A Quantitative Analysis Of Suburbanization And The Diffusion Of The Automobile

Author

Listed:
  • Karen A. Kopecky
  • Richard M. H. Suen

Abstract

Suburbanization in the United States between 1910 and 1970 was concurrent with the diffusion of the automobile. A circular city model is developed in order to access quantitatively the contribution of automobiles and rising incomes to suburbanization. The model incorporates a number of driving forces of suburbanization and car adoption, including falling automobile prices, rising real incomes, changing costs of traveling by car and with public transportation, and urban population growth. According to the model, 60% of postwar (1940–1970) suburbanization can be explained by these factors. Rising real incomes and falling automobile prices are shown to be the key drivers of suburbanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen A. Kopecky & Richard M. H. Suen, 2010. "A Quantitative Analysis Of Suburbanization And The Diffusion Of The Automobile," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1003-1037, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:51:y:2010:i:4:p:1003-1037
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2010.00609.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng, 2018. "Macro Aspects of Housing," GRU Working Paper Series GRU_2018_016, City University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics and Finance, Global Research Unit.
    2. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen A. Kopecky, 2019. "The Wife's Protector: A Quantitative Theory Linking Contraceptive Technology with the Decline in Marriage," Working Papers wp2019_1912, CEMFI.
    3. Goulden, Murray & Ryley, Tim & Dingwall, Robert, 2014. "Beyond ‘predict and provide’: UK transport, the growth paradigm and climate change," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 139-147.
    4. Boustan, Leah Platt, 2013. "Local public goods and the demand for high-income municipalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 71-82.
    5. Federico Curci & Federico Masera, 2025. "Flight from Urban Blight: Lead Poisoning, Crime, and Suburbanization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 107(3), pages 621-638, May.
    6. David Lagakos, 2009. "Superstores or mom and pops? Technolgy adoption and productivity differences in retail trade," Staff Report 428, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    7. Robert A. Margo & Leah Platt Boustan, 2011. "White Suburbanization And African-American Home Ownership, 1940-1980," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2011-024, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    8. Kim, Woojin, 2022. "Television and American consumerism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    9. Agrawal, David R. & Zhao, Weihua, 2023. "Taxing Uber," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    10. Arvid Krüger & Uwe Altrock, 2023. "Mobility Hubs: A Way Out of Car Dependency Through a New Multifunctional Housing Development?," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 112-125.
    11. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2015. "Urban Land Use," 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 467-560, Elsevier.
    12. Tong, Qingmeng & Qiu, Feng, 2020. "Population growth and land development: Investigating the bi-directional interactions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Garth Heutel & Erich Muehlegger, 2015. "Consumer Learning and Hybrid Vehicle Adoption," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(1), pages 125-161, September.
    14. Arvid Krüger & Uwe Altrock, 2023. "Mobility Hubs: A Way Out of Car Dependency Through a New Multifunctional Housing Development?," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 112-125.
    15. Alberto Bisin & Giovanni Federico, 2021. "Merger or Acquisition? Introduction to the Handbook of Historical Economics," NBER Working Papers 28786, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • E10 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - General

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