Educational Outcomes and House Values: A Test of the value added Approach*

Abstract. We use house price hedonics to compare the extent that homeowners value traditional measures of school quality or the “value added” of schooling. Unlike other studies, we use spatial statistics as an identification strategy. Based on our study of 310 school districts and 77,000 house transactions, we find little support for the value added model. Instead, we find that households consistently value a district's average proficiency test scores and expenditures. The elasticity of house prices with respect to school expenditures is 0.49, and an increase in test scores by one standard deviation, ceteris paribus, raises house prices by 7.1 percent.     

Diva Las Vegas: queering space in the entertainment capital of the world

After a spate of demolitions and a 1990s building boom, the values of neoliberalism – deregulation, privatisation and innovation through competition – have shaped an entirely new topography in Las Vegas, developing in perfect harmony with the former’s rise to global dominance. The Strip, however, has come to capture more than free market economics in building form. The fabric of this desert suburb is also unmistakably gendered, and embodies normative sexuality throughout its unique arrangement of casino-hotels. This article proposes that neoliberalism and heteronormativity are closely intertwined and manifest through the spatial composition of Las Vegas Boulevard. It uses the area’s orientation towards entertainment to consider performance as a central element to this spatiality, and thus as a lens through which to approach analysis of the Strip in spatial terms. Under the Strip’s twin spatial regimes, queer entertainers, and drag performers in particular, have historically marketed both themselves and their acts in order to attract revenue from a conservative, heterosexual audience. Despite its all-pervasive heteronormativity, however, I also argue that the Strip contains a queer disruption at its core. The drag revue Divas Las Vegas hosted by the Strip’s longest-running headliner, Frank Marino, marks a break with local drag traditions, and provides a queer interrogation of gender politics for its audience of predominantly heterosexual tourists.     

Future Characteristics of the Elderly in Developing Countries and Their Implications for Policy

This paper explores barriers leading to continuing low levels of girls' schooling in Pakistan. More specifically, and for rural areas, the authors examine the barriers stemming from culturally associated gender in schooling, focusing, in particular, on school availability and constraints on female mobility. Logistic regressions of enrolment and attrition using secondary data from the National Adolescent and Youth Survey show that even after taking school availability into account, girls in households allowing unrestricted mobility to school had 1.5 times higher odds of ever being enrolled than those who required an escort. Once in school, the need for an escort implied 1.6 times higher odds of dropping out. The paper concludes that while investment in girls' schools, and to secondary level, is paramount for starting and continuing in school, the potential benefits will only be fully realised with accompanying measures which facilitate rural girls' mobility.     

TIEBOUT DYNAMICS: NEIGHBORHOOD RESPONSE TO A CENTRAL‐CITY/SUBURBAN HOUSE‐PRICE DIFFERENTIAL*

ABSTRACT We take advantage of an unusual natural experiment—a high‐quality 1920s subdivision split neatly in half by a central‐city/suburban boundary—to study the response over 30 years to the relative decline in the quality of central‐city services since the 1960s. As expected, a large sale price differential opens in the 1960s. Demographic characteristics are nevertheless similar across the boundary. Survey data indicate Tiebout sorting: the central city side attracts households who prefer alternatives to suburban public schools. Children attend parochial and public “magnet” schools. A neighborhood association supplements municipal services. Rigid service district boundaries inhibit closure of the house‐price differential.     

THE SECTION 8 RENTAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: COSTS AND POLICY OPTIONS

Housing benefits and income transfers realized by Section 8 program participants are examined. The distribution of benefits depends on income eligibility rules and the level of Fair Market Rents, the latter establishing an upper limit on the quality of housing available to households. By establishing Fair Market Rents for an entire urban area, program regulations tend to exclude the poor from better quality neighborhoods. Subsidy costs for newly constructed units are twice as high as for existing units. Income eligibility rules are such that many more households are eligible than can be supported, creating difficult problems of horizontal equity. Lowering Fair Market Rents or raising the required share of tenant's income paid in rent would tend to reduce these horizontal equity problems.     

重大事件对城市空间结构的影响:研究进展与管理对策

在全球化竞争日益激烈的背景下,举办重大事件已成为许多城市进行重新定位或推动城市跨越式发展的一种途径。重大事件为综合运用结构主义、制度主义等多种方法研究城市空间结构的演化与重构提供了一个难得的契机,但国内外学术界关于重大事件对举办城市空间结构影响的专门研究还比较缺乏,特别是对于事件背景下城市空间要素怎样发生演变以及城市如何借助事件契机对空间结构进行优化的研究还很薄弱。本文通过梳理国内外有关重大事件对举办城市空间结构影响的文献,初步厘清了重大事件对举办城市空间结构的影响因素及作用方式,进而为事件举办城市提出了指导性的战略管理框架,并指出了现有研究存在的不足与未来发展方向。     

Hedonic analysis and time‐varying capitalization: An application using school quality

This paper investigates the dynamics of school quality capitalization during the boom–bust cycle of the housing market. We find that the housing downturn led to a sharp increase in capitalization for high‐quality schools, whereas the boom and recovery periods saw a decline in valuation for top schools. Hence, the capitalization of school quality exhibits a strong countercyclical trend with the overall housing market. We test whether our findings are driven by households “trading down” from private schools during downturns or the fact that the housing supply responds asymmetrically during the boom and bust, but we find little support for these propositions.     

SPATIAL HEDONICS AND THE WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR RESIDENTIAL AMENITIES*

ABSTRACT We investigate the role of spatial multipliers when using spatial‐lag hedonic models to measure the benefits of residential amenity improvements. Such benefits are commonly measured using the product of the coefficient of the amenity in question and a spatial multiplier. We show this is correct only when the spatial spillovers transmitted through the multiplier are strictly technological. If they are instead strictly pecuniary, then benefits are fully measured using the coefficient with no spatial multiplier. In either case, or in intermediate cases where both types of spillovers exist, a spatial‐lag specification is required to obtain valid benefits measures.     

A Note on Trip Benefits in Spatial Interaction Models

We extend the well-known transport users' benefits measure (TUB) for the doubly-constrained spatial interaction model derived by Williams (1976). The original formula expresses the TUB as composed by two terms associated with the origin and the destination zones. First, the TUB is associated here with trips instead of zones, providing a natural interpretation as a rule-of-a-half measure of benefit under inelastic demand (for the short-run case). Second, a TUB formula for the long-run case is derived, that is, when the total number of trips, trip origins, and trip destinations change. We then propose updated measures of accessibility for location behavior.     

PUBLIC LAND SALES AS INNOVATIVE ENVIRONMENTALISM?

During the 1970s, conflict over land development restrictions in the Lake Tahoe Basin intensified. Funding of costly land purchases to preclude development emerged as a key problem in implementing timely and effective environmental protection. This timing coincided with pressures for land sales in and adjacent to urban “islands” in the public land “sea” of the West. One result was enactment of Public Law 95–586, co-authored by Congressmen Santini and Burton. Proceeds from public land sales near Las Vegas, Nevada, would be dedicated to purchase of environmentally sensitive lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin some 450 miles to the north. This study traces formation of the temporary coalition among local interests and Congressional leaders that yielded a possible model for future public lands conflict resolution. It then reviews and critiques the first four years of experience with implementation of the land sales element of the act. It concludes by suggesting some “fine tuning” which, if accepted by environmentalist groups at the national and local level, would point toward the use of the Santini-Burton approach as a source of funds to be used for environmental protection in other areas.     

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD: HOW CAN REGIONAL SCIENCE CONTRIBUTE TO THE STUDY OF NEIGHBORHOODS?*

ABSTRACT We argue in this paper that neighborhoods are highly relevant for the types of issues at the heart of regional science. First, residential and economic activity takes place in particular locations, and particular neighborhoods. Many attributes of those neighborhood environments matter for this activity, from the physical amenities, to the quality of the public and private services received. Second, those neighborhoods vary in their placement in the larger region and this broader arrangement of neighborhoods is particularly important for location choices, commuting behavior and travel patterns. Third, sorting across these neighborhoods by race and income may well matter for educational and labor market outcomes, important components of a region's overall economic activity. For each of these areas we suggest a series of unanswered questions that would benefit from more attention. Focused on neighborhood characteristics themselves, there are important gaps in our understanding of how neighborhoods change – the causes and the consequences. In terms of the overall pattern of neighborhoods and resulting commuting patterns, this connects directly to current concerns about environmental sustainability and there is much need for research relevant to policy makers. And in terms of segregation and sorting across neighborhoods, work is needed on better spatial measures. In addition, housing market causes and consequences for local economic activity are under researched. We expand on each of these, finishing with some suggestions on how newly available data, with improved spatial identifiers, may enable regional scientists to answer some of these research questions.     

Recent Change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population and Housing Geographies

The intercensal period (2006–2011) was a time of significant policy and population change in Indigenous affairs. The aim of this paper is to document the changing distribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and housing geographies over that period. We use the Indigenous Region structure developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to show that Indigenous Australians grew at a rate that significantly outstrips the non‐Indigenous population with an increasing concentration of the Indigenous population on the urban eastern seaboard and particularly among older people. We present results that show that for certain measures, the housing situation of the Indigenous population in 2011 had improved relative to the Indigenous population in 2006. A smaller proportion of Indigenous households were estimated to live in an overcrowded dwelling compared with Indigenous households in 2006. There were also significant increases in the per cent of Indigenous households that owned or were purchasing their own home. Other results might be seen as less positive with community housing (a tenure type identified as having benefits in both qualitative and quantitative analysis) declining in importance. In net terms though, Indigenous households continue to experience a high degree of housing need. Compared with other households, they were 3.7 times as likely to live in an overcrowded dwelling.     

LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION AND SPATIAL INEQUALITY IN CHINESE CITIES: THE ROLE OF RESIDENTIAL INCOME SORTING AND LAND‐USE CONDITIONS

Spatial inequality refers to unequal access to local public services between high‐ and low‐income households in relation to their residential locations. We examine two hypotheses regarding the role of income sorting and land‐use conditions in shaping spatial inequality in Chinese cities, where residents have little direct influence on local public service provision. First, in the presence of resource indivisibility, travel cost, and location‐based rationing, scarcity of public‐service resources in a city makes access to public services more uneven across neighborhoods, thus exacerbating income sorting and spatial inequality in the city. Second, the exacerbating effect of resource scarcity is mitigated by land‐use conditions that limit income sorting. Estimates of willingness to pay by households of different income levels for public‐service resources across cities corroborate both the exacerbating effect of resource scarcity and the mitigating effect of inclusive land‐use conditions.     

THE IMPACT OF MIXED LAND USE ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUES*

ABSTRACT Contemporary European urban planning policies aim to mix land uses in compact neighborhoods. It is presumed that mixing land uses yields socioeconomic benefits and therefore has a positive effect on housing values. In this paper, we investigate the impact of mixed land use on housing values using semiparametric estimation techniques. We demonstrate that a diverse neighborhood is positively valued by households. There are various land use types that have a positive impact on house prices, e.g., business services and leisure. Land uses that are incompatible with residential land use are, among others, manufacturing and wholesale. It appears that households are willing to pay about 2.5 percent more for a house in a mixed neighborhood. We also show that there is substantial heterogeneity in willingness to pay for mixed land use. For example, only apartment occupiers are willing to pay for an increase in diversity, whereas households living in other house types are not willing to pay for diversity.     

Immigrant Needs and Local Government Services

Upon their arrival in the United States, immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, impact the provision of local government services. Survey data collected from four immigrant groups (Nicaraguans, Haitians, Central Americans, and Mexicans) in Miami, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada examine the question of whether country of origin is a predictor of local government service utilization by immigrants. The findings suggest that immigrants, regardless of country of origin, share similar characteristics and attitudes regarding life in the United States. The major differences among the immigrant groups studied appear to be in their plans for the future. The Mexican respondents were likely to be described as sojourners, with plans to return to their home country, while the other groups intended to settle permanently in the United States. At the local level, these findings suggest that policymakers must be sensitive to motivations of the immigrants who locate in their areas, understanding the implications for service delivery in multilanguage, multiculture communities.     

Human capital sorting: The “when” and “who” of the sorting of educated workers to urban regions

The sorting of high‐ability workers is often advanced as one source of spatial disparities in economic outcomes. There are still few papers that analyze when human capital sorting occurs and whom it involves. Using data on 16 cohorts of university graduates in Sweden, we demonstrate significant sorting to urban regions on high school grades and education levels of parents, i.e., two attributes typically associated with latent abilities that are valued in the labor market. A large part of this sorting has already occurred in deciding where to study, because the top universities in Sweden are predominantly located in urban regions. The largest part of directed sorting on ability indicators occurs in the decision of where to study. Even after controlling for sorting prior to labor market entry, the “best and brightest” are still more likely to start working in urban regions. However, this effect appears to be driven by Sweden's main metropolitan region, Stockholm. We find no influence of our ability indicators on the probability of starting to work in urban regions after graduation when Stockholm is excluded. Studies of human capital sorting need to account for selection processes to and from universities, because neglecting mobility prior to labor market entry is likely to lead to an underestimation of the extent of the sorting to urban regions.     

Voluntary regions and the case of Las Vegas

A shifting American cultural geography, stemming from clustering of like-minded people, has been much-discussed in recent years. The “voluntary region”, proposed by Wilbur Zelinsky in his path-breaking The cultural geography of the United States, is a regional construct relatively unexplored by cultural geographers that may help in their contributions to such conversations. As described by Zelinsky, voluntary regions are places that attract individual, like-minded people away from long-standing “traditional regions” based on a desire for amenity and economic opportunity. I review the concept and its sparse embrace in the literature and suggest that it has much to offer our discipline. Using Las Vegas as a paradigmatic example, I explore methods that can be used to explore the formation and character of voluntary regions. I argue that the voluntary region framework is an encompassing lens through which cultural geographers can examine the complex nature of place and regional construction at the hands of dynamic forces that lead people to resettle in new places.     

Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese Sovereignty

A team of Hong Kong-based geographers led by a noted specialist provides a comparative overview of Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese sovereignty (respectively, since 1997 and 1999). The authors outline the historical development of both cities, identifying their common legacies as colonial enclaves as well as shared economic experience as autonomous Special Administrative Regions (SARs) under the "one country, two systems" formula devised in Beijing. The paper includes up-to-date statistical information (some through March 2008) on per capita GDP, visitors from Mainland China and from abroad (for both cities), direct investment, employment in financial services, trade and logistics, and tourism (for Hong Kong) as well as revenues from gambling casinos in Macao that are reportedly surpassing those of Las Vegas. Journal of Economic Literature, O16, O18, O20, R11. Classification Numbers: 11 figures, 4 tables, 46 references.     

DRS. MUTH AND MILLS MEET DR. TIEBOUT: INTEGRATING LOCATION‐SPECIFIC AMENITIES INTO MULTI‐COMMUNITY EQUILIBRIUM MODELS*

ABSTRACT We consider the problem of integrating spatial amenities into locational equilibrium models with multiple jurisdictions. We provide sufficient conditions under which models that assume a single housing price in each community continue to apply in the presence of location‐specific amenities that vary both within and across communities. If these conditions are satisfied, the models, estimation methods, and results in Epple and Sieg (1999) are valid in the presence of (potentially unobserved) location‐specific amenities. We also show how to construct sufficient statistics that capture location specific spatial heterogeneity. We apply these techniques using data from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. We find that these amenity measures capture proximity to important local employment centers as well as heterogeneity in school quality within a given school district.     

An Evaluation of Endogenous Sustainable Development Planning for the Rural–Urban Environment in Gran Canaria

Urban developments can transform adjacent rural areas by degrading their natural resource base and environmental values. In this paper we provide evidence on the implementation of an endogenous sustainable development plan for the rural–urban environment in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The objective was the generation of endogenous development in the rural areas by implicating the local population in developing activities in line with natural values and the recuperation of traditional cultures. At the same time, urban societies were expected to benefit from the preservation and availability of these rural environments. The plan was implemented in a large rural valley located between adjacent urban areas. The valley represents an opportunity for urban dwellers to benefit from a large rural park in the urban environment for leisure and cultural activities. The overall accomplishment of the plan was evaluated and contrasted with the benefits to the urban population, which were also measured with a discrete choice experiment. The results highlight that the principal objectives failed because of the lack of political determination to promote the participatory channels that would lead to the preservation of natural resources in a dynamic process of social change.