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Quality Of Life, Firm Productivity, And The Value Of Amenities Across Canadian Cities

Author

Listed:
  • David Albouy

    (University of Michigan)

  • Fernando Leibovici

    (New York University)

  • Casey Warman

    (Queen's University)

Abstract

This paper presents the first hedonic general-equilibrium estimates of quality-of-life and firm productivity differences across Canadian cities, using data on local wages and housing costs. These estimates account for the unobservability of land rents and geographic differences in federal and provincial tax burdens. Quality of life estimates are generally higher in CanadaÂ’s larger cities: Victoria, Vancouver are the nicest overall, particularly for Anglophones, while Montreal and Ottawa are the nicest for Francophones. These estimates are positively correlated with estimates in the popular literature and may be explained by differences in climate. Toronto is CanadaÂ’s most productive city; Vancouver, the overall most valued city.

Suggested Citation

  • David Albouy & Fernando Leibovici & Casey Warman, 2012. "Quality Of Life, Firm Productivity, And The Value Of Amenities Across Canadian Cities," Working Paper 1287, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    • Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1287
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    Cited by:

    1. Franco, Sofia F. & Cutter, W. Bowman, 2022. "The determinants of non-residential real estate values with special reference to environmental local amenities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Shi, Tie & Zhu, Wenzhang & Fu, Shihe, 2021. "Quality of life in Chinese cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," 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 247-348, Elsevier.
    4. David Albouy & Alex Chernoff & Chandler Lutz & Casey Warman, 2019. "Local Labor Markets in Canada and the United States," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S2), pages 533-594.
    5. Antoine Bonleu, 2017. "Sun, Regulation and Local Social Networks," Working Papers halshs-01502604, HAL.
    6. Gustavo A. García, 2019. "Agglomeration economies in the presence of an informal sector: the Colombian case," Revue d'économie régionale et urbaine, Armand Colin, vol. 0(2), pages 355-388.
    7. Jørn Rattsø & Hildegunn E Stokke, 2015. "Handling amenities in income taxation: Analysis of tax distortions in a migration equilibrium model," Working Paper Series 16315, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    8. Francesco Andreoli & Alessandra Michelangeli, 2014. "Welfare Measures to Assess Urban Quality of Life," Working Papers 278, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2014.
    9. Lu Zhang & Hongfei Yu & Zhongfa Zhou & Fangxin Yi & Dong Li, 2023. "National Big Data Experimental Area and the Unexpected Booming of the Housing Price in Guiyang of Guizhou Province of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    10. Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques†François Thisse & Xiwei Zhu, 2018. "Does Technological Progress Magnify Regional Disparities?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 59(2), pages 647-663, May.
    11. Thomas Murray & David Maddison & Katrin Rehdanz, 2013. "Do Geographical Variations In Climate Influence Life-Satisfaction?," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(01), pages 1-21.
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1kv8mtgl748r0ahh12air9erdc is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Albouy, David, 2012. "Evaluating the efficiency and equity of federal fiscal equalization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 824-839.
    14. Norbert Hiller & Oliver Lerbs, 2015. "The capitalization of non-market attributes into regional housing rents and wages: evidence on German functional labor market areas," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 35(1), pages 49-72, February.
    15. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," 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 247-348, Elsevier.
    16. Jenna van Draanen & Kanna Hayashi & M.-J. Milloy & Ekaterina Nosova & Hennady Shulha & Cameron Grant & Lindsey Richardson, 2021. "Material Security as a Measure of Poverty: A Validation Study with People Who Use Drugs," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 501-521, September.
    17. Huang, Daisy J. & Leung, Charles K. & Qu, Baozhi, 2015. "Do bank loans and local amenities explain Chinese urban house prices?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 19-38.
    18. Wei Zou & Jingjing Li & Zhe Shu, 2022. "Urban Quality of Life and Production Amenity in Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-32, February.
    19. Jørn Rattsø & Hildegunn E. Stokke, 2017. "National income taxation and the geographic distribution of population," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(5), pages 879-902, September.
    20. Paul Frijters & Benno Torgler & Grace Gao & Daniel Melser, 2016. "Revealed Preference Measures of Quality of Life in Australia's Urban and Regional Areas," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92, pages 15-29, June.
    21. Sofia B. S. D. Castro & João Correia-da-Silva & José M. Gaspar, 2022. "Economic geography meets Hotelling: the home-sweet-home effect," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(1), pages 183-209, February.
    22. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," 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 247-348, Elsevier.
    23. Fredrik Carlsen & Stefan Leknes, 2019. "The paradox of the unhappy, growing city: reconciling evidence," Discussion Papers 907, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    24. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," 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 247-348, Elsevier.
    25. Roberto Gallardo del Angel, 2017. "A Quality of Life Index of Mexican cities: An equalizing-difference approach," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Finanzas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, Enero-Jun.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    quality of life; firm productivity; cost-of-living; firm productivity; compensating wage differentials;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

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