IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16501.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding Urban Economies, Land Use, and Social Dynamics in the City: Big Data and Measurement

Author

Listed:
  • Saiz, Albert

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Salazar-Miranda, Arianna

    (MIT)

Abstract

Recent advancements in data collection have expanded the tools and information available for urban and spatial-based research. This paper presents an overview of spatial big data sources used in urban science and urban economics, with the goal of directing and enriching future research by other applied economists. We structure our discussion around data origins and analytical methods, discussing geographic information maps, GPS and CDR, textual repositories, social media, credit card transactions, street imagery, sensor readings, volumetric data, street patterns, transportation metrics, public records, geocoded historical data, business analytics, real estate transactions, and crowdsourced input. While aiming to provide an overarching perspective, we also touch upon common challenges in urban big data research, especially those unique to data collection, analysis, and inference.

Suggested Citation

  • Saiz, Albert & Salazar-Miranda, Arianna, 2023. "Understanding Urban Economies, Land Use, and Social Dynamics in the City: Big Data and Measurement," IZA Discussion Papers 16501, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16501
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16501.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Wong, Maisy, 2014. "Estimating the distortionary effects of ethnic quotas in Singapore using housing transactions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 131-145.
    3. Saiz, Albert, 2007. "Immigration and housing rents in American cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 345-371, March.
    4. Arjun Ramani & Nicholas Bloom, 2021. "The Donut Effect of Covid-19 on Cities," NBER Working Papers 28876, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Franz Fuerst & Patrick McAllister, 2011. "Green Noise or Green Value? Measuring the Effects of Environmental Certification on Office Values," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 45-69, March.
    6. Anna Piil Damm, 2009. "Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 281-314, April.
    7. Garcia-López, Miquel-Ángel & Holl, Adelheid & Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet, 2015. "Suburbanization and highways in Spain when the Romans and the Bourbons still shape its cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 52-67.
    8. Philippe Bracke, 2015. "House Prices and Rents: Microevidence from a Matched Data Set in Central London," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 403-431, June.
    9. Riccardo Di Clemente & Miguel Luengo-Oroz & Matias Travizano & Sharon Xu & Bapu Vaitla & Marta C. González, 2018. "Sequences of purchases in credit card data reveal lifestyles in urban populations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    10. Dave Donaldson & Adam Storeygard, 2016. "The View from Above: Applications of Satellite Data in Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 171-198, Fall.
    11. Keele, Luke J. & Titiunik, Rocío, 2015. "Geographic Boundaries as Regression Discontinuities," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 127-155, January.
    12. Takahiro Yabe & Bernardo García Bulle Bueno & Xiaowen Dong & Alex Pentland & Esteban Moro, 2023. "Behavioral changes during the COVID-19 pandemic decreased income diversity of urban encounters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Couture, Victor & Dingel, Jonathan I. & Green, Allison & Handbury, Jessie & Williams, Kevin R., 2022. "JUE Insight: Measuring movement and social contact with smartphone data: a real-time application to COVID-19," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Paul Calem & Jeanna Kenney & Lauren Lambie‐Hanson & Leonard Nakamura, 2021. "Appraising home purchase appraisals," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S1), pages 134-168, March.
    15. Kiron Chatterjee & Samuel Chng & Ben Clark & Adrian Davis & Jonas De Vos & Dick Ettema & Susan Handy & Adam Martin & Louise Reardon, 2020. "Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 5-34, January.
    16. Zhang, Kai & Chen, Min & Yang, Yue & Zhong, Teng & Zhu, Rui & Zhang, Fan & Qian, Zhen & Lü, Guonian & Yan, Jinyue, 2022. "Quantifying the photovoltaic potential of highways in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    17. Li, Han & Li, Zhigang, 2013. "Road investments and inventory reduction: Firm level evidence from China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 43-52.
    18. Douglas S. Noonan, 2005. "Neighbours, Barriers and Urban Environments: Are Things 'Different on the Other Side of the Tracks'?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(10), pages 1817-1835, September.
    19. Herath, Shanaka & Maier, Gunther, 2010. "The hedonic price method in real estate and housing market research. A review of the literature," SRE-Discussion Papers 2010/03, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    20. Wong, Grace, 2008. "Has SARS infected the property market Evidence from Hong Kong," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 74-95, January.
    21. Leyden, K.M., 2003. "Social Capital and the Built Environment: The Importance of Walkable Neighborhoods," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1546-1551.
    22. Kok, Nils & Jennen, Maarten, 2012. "The impact of energy labels and accessibility on office rents," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 489-497.
    23. Akbar, Prottoy & Duranton, Gilles, 2017. "Measuring the Cost of Congestion in Highly Congested City: Bogotá," Research Department working papers 1028, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    24. Gabriel E. Kreindler & Yuhei Miyauchi, 2021. "Measuring Commuting and Economic Activity inside Cities with Cell Phone Records," NBER Working Papers 28516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Sun, Maoran & Han, Changyu & Nie, Quan & Xu, Jingying & Zhang, Fan & Zhao, Qunshan, 2022. "Understanding Building Energy Efficiency with Administrative and Emerging Urban Big Data by Deep Learning in Glasgow," OSF Preprints g8p4f, Center for Open Science.
    26. Barajas, Jesus M. & Brown, Anne, 2021. "Not minding the gap: Does ride-hailing serve transit deserts?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    27. Bourassa, Steven C. & Hoesli, Martin & Sun, Jian, 2006. "A simple alternative house price index method," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 80-97, March.
    28. Kevin Manaugh & Luis Miranda-Moreno & Ahmed El-Geneidy, 2010. "The effect of neighbourhood characteristics, accessibility, home–work location, and demographics on commuting distances," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 627-646, July.
    29. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hendren & Maggie R. Jones & Sonya R. Porter, 2018. "The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility," Working Papers 18-42, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    30. Mariaflavia Harari, 2020. "Cities in Bad Shape: Urban Geometry in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2377-2421, August.
    31. Chihiro Shimizu & Kiyohiko G Nishimura & Tsutomu Watanabe1, 2012. "House prices from magazines, realtors,and the Land Registry," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Property markets and financial stability, volume 64, pages 29-38, Bank for International Settlements.
    32. Lang William W. & Nakamura Leonard I., 1993. "A Model of Redlining," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 223-234, March.
    33. Marlon G. Boarnet & Saksith Chalermpong & Elizabeth Geho, 2005. "Specification issues in models of population and employment growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(1), pages 21-46, March.
    34. Williams, Sarah & White, Adam & Waiganjo, Peter & Orwa, Daniel & Klopp, Jacqueline, 2015. "The digital matatu project: Using cell phones to create an open source data for Nairobi's semi-formal bus system," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 39-51.
    35. Shanjiang Zhu & David Levinson, 2015. "Do People Use the Shortest Path? An Empirical Test of Wardrop’s First Principle," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, August.
    36. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Alexandra Mastro, 2012. "Valuing Iconic Design: Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture in Oak Park, Illinois," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(8), pages 1079-1099, November.
    37. Hyunyoung Choi & Hal Varian, 2012. "Predicting the Present with Google Trends," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(s1), pages 2-9, June.
    38. Less, Elyse Levine & McKee, Patricia & Toomey, Traci & Nelson, Toben & Erickson, Darin & Xiong, Serena & Jones-Webb, Rhonda, 2015. "Matching study areas using Google Street View: A new application for an emerging technology," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 72-79.
    39. Ziersch, Anna M & Baum, Fran E & MacDougall, Colin & Putland, Christine, 2005. "Neighbourhood life and social capital: the implications for health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 71-86, January.
    40. Jeremy Ginsberg & Matthew H. Mohebbi & Rajan S. Patel & Lynnette Brammer & Mark S. Smolinski & Larry Brilliant, 2009. "Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7232), pages 1012-1014, February.
    41. Marta C. González & César A. Hidalgo & Albert-László Barabási, 2009. "Understanding individual human mobility patterns," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7235), pages 238-238, March.
    42. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2008. "The attenuation of human capital spillovers," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 373-389, September.
    43. Blundell, Richard & Pashardes, Panos & Weber, Guglielmo, 1993. "What Do We Learn About Consumer Demand Patterns from Micro Data?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 570-597, June.
    44. Schuetz, Jenny & Been, Vicki & Ellen, Ingrid Gould, 2008. "Neighborhood effects of concentrated mortgage foreclosures," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 306-319, December.
    45. Vivek Kumar Singh & Burcin Bozkaya & Alex Pentland, 2015. "Money Walks: Implicit Mobility Behavior and Financial Well-Being," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    46. Leigh Linden & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2008. "Estimates of the Impact of Crime Risk on Property Values from Megan's Laws," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 1103-1127, June.
    47. Luc Anselin, 2010. "Thirty years of spatial econometrics," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 3-25, March.
    48. Song, Yan & Knaap, Gerrit-Jan, 2003. "New urbanism and housing values: a disaggregate assessment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 218-238, September.
    49. Wood, Lisa & Frank, Lawrence D. & Giles-Corti, Billie, 2010. "Sense of community and its relationship with walking and neighborhood design," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1381-1390, May.
    50. Jinhyun Hong & David McArthur & Varun Raturi, 2020. "Did Safe Cycling Infrastructure Still Matter During a COVID-19 Lockdown?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-15, October.
    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. García-Suaza, Andres & Varela, Daniela, 2024. "Nightlight, landcover and buildings: understanding intracity socioeconomic differences," Documentos de Trabajo 21025, Universidad del Rosario.

    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. Holl, Adelheid, 2016. "Highways and productivity in manufacturing firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 131-151.
    2. Erasmo Giambona & Rafael P. Ribas, 2023. "Unveiling the Price of Obscenity: Evidence From Closing Prostitution Windows in Amsterdam," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(3), pages 677-705, June.
    3. Topa, Giorgio & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Neighborhood and Network Effects," 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 561-624, Elsevier.
    4. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2020. "The Economics of Urban Density," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 3-26, Summer.
    5. Yencha, Christopher, 2019. "Valuing walkability: New evidence from computer vision methods," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 689-709.
    6. Albert Saiz & Luyao Wang, 2023. "Physical geography and traffic delays: Evidence from a major coastal city," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(1), pages 218-243, September.
    7. Liu, Nan & Zhao, Yuan & Ge, Jiaqi, 2018. "Do renters skimp on energy efficiency during economic recessions? Evidence from Northeast Scotland," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 164-175.
    8. Fuerst, Franz & McAllister, Patrick & Nanda, Anupam & Wyatt, Peter, 2015. "Does energy efficiency matter to home-buyers? An investigation of EPC ratings and transaction prices in England," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 145-156.
    9. Nguyen-Hoang, Phuong & Yinger, John, 2011. "The capitalization of school quality into house values: A review," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 30-48, March.
    10. Philippe Wanner, 2021. "How well can we estimate immigration trends using Google data?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1181-1202, August.
    11. Chen, Kong-Pin & Yang, Jui-Chung & Yang, Tzu-Ting, 2022. "JUE insight: Demand for transportation and spatial pattern of economic activity during the pandemic," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    12. Eugenia Go & Kentaro Nakajima & Yasuyuki Sawada & Kiyoshi Taniguchi, 2023. "Satellite-Based Vehicle Flow Data to Assess Local Economic Activities," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1209, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    13. Peter Leopold S. Bergman & Eric W. Chan & Adam Kapor, 2020. "Housing Search Frictions: Evidence from Detailed Search Data and a Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 8080, CESifo.
    14. Waights, Sevrin, 2018. "Does the law of one price hold for hedonic prices?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(15), pages 3299-3317.
    15. Genqiang Lei & Xiaohong Huang & Penghui Xi, 2016. "The impact of transfer payments on urban-rural income gap: based on fuzzy RD analysis of China’s midwestern county data," China Finance and Economic Review, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, December.
    16. Sadayuki, Taisuke, 2018. "Measuring the spatial effect of multiple sites: An application to housing rent and public transportation in Tokyo, Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 155-173.
    17. Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding, 2021. "In crisis, we pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 541-583.
    18. Nicolai V. Kuminoff & Jaren C. Pope, 2014. "Do “Capitalization Effects” For Public Goods Reveal The Public'S Willingness To Pay?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1227-1250, November.
    19. Jesse T. Richman & Ryan J. Roberts, 2023. "Assessing Spurious Correlations in Big Search Data," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Daniel Hartley & Kwan Ok Lee, 2019. "The Long-Run Effects of Neighborhood Change on Incumbent Families," Working Paper Series WP-2019-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    urban big data;

    JEL classification:

    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp16501. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.