SEARCH FRICTIONS,UNEMPLOYMENT, AND HOUSING IN CITIES: THEORY AND POLICIES

We propose an urban search‐matching model with land development. Wages, unemployment, prices of housing and land are endogenously determined. We characterize the steady‐state equilibrium and then discuss the issue of efficiency. To explore interactions among markets, we implement comparative static analysis. We also consider three policies: an entry‐cost policy that reduces firms' entry, a transportation policy that reduces commuting costs, and a housing policy that decreases rental prices. We find that the transportation and housing policies are more efficient if the unemployment rate is low, while the entry‐cost policy is more efficient if the unemployment rate is high.     

A MODEL OF URBAN HOUSEHOLD BEHAVIOR WITH LEISURE CHOICE

This paper provides a complete comparative-static analysis of the simplest model of urban household behavior that incorporates time explicitly. Results involving the housing-price function and the effects on housing consumption and location (radial distance from the CBD) of exogenous changes in preferences for housing, housing price, and money costs of transportation are the same as in models not incorporating time explicitly. In addition, it is found that housing consumption and location are negatively related to commuting time, positively related to nonwage income, and ambiguously related (both a priori and empirically, for reasonable values of the relevant variables) to the wage rate.     

WHEN AND HOW DOES COMMUTING TO CITIES INFLUENCE RURAL EMPLOYMENT GROWTH?

This paper estimates the influence that rural‐to‐urban commuting has on rural employment growth, and whether the strength and spatial reach of this effect depend on commuters’ levels of education. A main finding is that rural‐to‐urban commuting has a robust positive impact on rural employment growth in services and retail. There is no significant difference in how far these effects reach into rural Sweden for commuters with different levels of education. These results suggest that a viable policy for local employment growth in rural areas with reasonable commuting times to urban centers is to improve the commuting to urban centers.     

The Effect of a Change in Wages on Welfare in a Two–Class Monocentric City

This paper performs a comparative static analysis to derive the effect of a change in the wages of the rich living in the suburban area of a city on the welfare of the poor living in the central area of the city. It assumes that commuting cost is a function of distance and wages. A sufficient condition for an increase in the wages of the rich to harm the welfare of the poor is that the time cost of commuting is greater than the operating cost of commuting.     

LOCATIONAL SIGNALING AND AGGLOMERATION

Agglomeration can be caused by asymmetric information and a locational signaling effect: The location choice of workers signals their productivity to potential employers. The cost of a signal is the cost of housing at that location. When workers' marginal willingness to pay for housing is negatively correlated with their productivity, only the core‐periphery (partially stratified) equilibria are stable. When workers' marginal willingness to pay for housing and their productivity are positively correlated, there is no core‐periphery equilibrium. The urban wage premium is explained when there is a core‐periphery equilibrium. Furthermore, location can at best be an approximate rather than a precise sieve for high‐skill workers.     

Alonso and the Scaling of Urban Profiles

How urban characteristics change with total population, their scaling behavior, has become an important research field since one needs to better understand the challenges of urban densification. Yet urban scaling research is largely disconnected from intra-urban structure, and this seriously limits its operationalization. In contrast, the monocentric model of Alonso provides a residential choice-based theory to urban density profiles. However, dedicated comparative static analyses do not completely solve how the model scales with population. This article bridges this gap by simultaneously introducing power laws for land, income and transport cost in the Alonso model. We show that the equilibrium urban structure of this augmented model matches recent empirical findings about the scaling of European population density profiles and satisfactorily represents European cities. This result is however not compatible with the observed scaling power of housing land profiles, and challenges current empirical understanding of wage and transport cost elasticities with population. Our results call for revisiting theories about land development and housing processes as well as the empirics of agglomeration benefits and transport costs.     

Preferences for Housing, Jobs, and Commuting: A Mixed Logit Analysis

This paper reports stated preferences of Dutch workers for combinations of housing, employment, and commuting. The analysis uses standard logit models as well as mixed logit models. Estimation results offer insights into the relative importance of various aspects of housing, employment, and commuting. Households dislike commuting and the value of commuting time implied by the model is high in comparison to the wage rate. Nevertheless, preferences for some housing attributes are strong enough to make substantially longer commuting acceptable to most workers. Of special interest is the strong preference for living in small-or medium-size cities, especially among two income households. Using a mixed logit model instead of a standard logit model results in a substantial improvement of the loglikelihood, reflecting the importance of heterogeneity among respondents. If no individual characteristics are incorporated into the model, the mixed logit implies substantially lower average monetary evaluations of most attributes. These differences are much smaller if some individual characteristics are incorporated into the model.     

URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF LABOR MARKETS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE “TODARO PARADOX” IN A SPATIAL CONTEXT*

ABSTRACT The Todaro paradox and the effects of job creation in urban areas will be re-examined in our spatial model in which the radius of the labor market is endogenously determined by the rational choices of workers. The travel cost of workers plays a crucial role in the choice between two different types of response, migration or commuting. By considering travel costs, we find that the Todaro paradox can be applied to developed, as well as developing, countries. Job creation in urban areas can produce a paradoxical increase in urban unemployment in developed countries, because the low marginal cost of travel will significantly increase the radius of the urban labor market and create new labor supply without migration.     

Spatial Moving Behavior of Two-Earner Households

Economic theory suggests that job choice, residential choice and commuting behavior are simultaneously determined. The case of two-earner households deserves special attention because the two wage earners share a dwelling but have different workplaces. We base our analysis of spatial moving behavior on search theory. We demonstrate that job mobility depends positively on the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners. Residential mobility seems to be negatively influenced by the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners. The search model also indicates that two-earner households will, on average, move less often than single wage earners.     

COMPENSATION FOR COMMUTES IN THE LAND AND LABOR MARKETS: SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA*

ABSTRACT. Recent research suggests that in nonmonocentric cities compensation for commutes takes the form of both lower housing prices and higher wages. This paper develops a random utility model that predicts the probability of an actor choosing to commute between each residence and job in a metropolitan area conditional on the observed location of housing units and job sites. The model allows commuting time, origin-specific amenities, land prices, destination-specific amenities and wages to influence actors' choices. We estimate the model using maximum likelihood and generalized least squares techniques and data on commuting between each of 38 origin and 15 destination jurisdictions in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The empirical results show that, all else equal, a one percent increase in commuting time reduces the probability that a route (origin-destination combination) will be chosen by almost five percent. Origin-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into land prices and destination-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into wages. Desirable residential amenities include school quality and a low ratio of day to night population. Desirable workplace amenities include a large share of white collar jobs and a high density of employment.     

昆明市保障性住区居民就业空间特征及其收入效应分析

保障性住房建设解决了大量城市低收入家庭的住房问题,但大多区位偏远、交通不便,远离城市就业中心,导致低收入人群的通勤成本上升,进而对其就业和收入产生影响。本研究以昆明市为样本城市,选取廉租房、公租房和经适房3类保障性住区,利用通勤距离、通勤时间、通勤方式、工作地点等指标,从居住-就业空间匹配角度,揭示保障性住区居民就业空间特征;并通过建立包含空间虚拟变量的多元回归方程,揭示了保障性住区居民就业空间特征对其收入的影响。     

城市居住与就业空间关系研究进展及展望

城市居住与就业空间关系是城市地理学与城市经济学研究的重要领域之一,有必要梳理国内外研究进展及发展趋向。本文从理论基础、方法论、区位选择及影响因素三个方面回顾了城市居住与就业空间关系的相关研究,并对其进行述评与展望。研究首先厘清了居住与就业空间关系研究的理论基础;其次从通勤行为、就业可达性测度等方面总结了职住关系测度的方法论,并对居住-就业区位选择的影响因素进行了梳理;最后对国内外职住关系研究内容进行比较与述评,并展望了有待进一步深入研究的领域。     

快速工业化城市职住空间平衡与过剩通勤研究——以中山为例

过剩通勤是衡量城市居民职住空间组织和通勤效率的重要指标。本文以快速工业化城市中山市为例,采用2012年中山市交通调查数据,分析中山市职住空间平衡与过剩通勤状况。通过线性规划模型计算发现,中山市居民的通勤距离、过剩通勤率(E)、通勤容量(C_u)使用率均普遍小于国内大城市和西方城市。城市空间结构与土地利用、产业结构与就业结构对中山市的通勤特征的形成有重要的影响。过剩通勤各项指标与户籍、职业类型和家庭收入有显著的相关性。表现为家庭收入越高,过剩通勤率相对较高。机关事业单位和企业行政办公人员通勤效率较低,而产业工人通勤效率较高。非本市户籍人口通勤效率高于本市户籍人口。     

THE COMPARATIVE STATIC RESPONSE OF RENTAL HOUSING TO A PRICE CHANGE: INFLATION AND GOVERNMENT POLICY*

ABSTRACT. A two period consumer choice model is presented in which housing is treated as a quality differentiated good. The short-run comparative static response of rental housing to a price change is examined via an example, an exogenous increase in the inflation rate. Two stylized facts are alternately used; interest income is taxed, and interest rate ceilings are imposed on small savings deposits. The partial equilibrium distributional impact of inflation, in the context of rental housing markets, is also discussed.     

海口城市建成环境对高峰期网约车通勤出行的影响——基于滴滴出行数据

网约车的普及重塑了居民的通勤行为。城市建成环境作为居民通勤出行的制约因素,是交通地理学的重要研究议题。采用海口市滴滴出行订单数据,刻画格网尺度的居民通勤时间与通勤距离的空间分异格局,并运用地理探测器分析城市建成环境对居民通勤出行的影响。结果表明：(1)早晚高峰通勤时间在空间上表现为中间集聚、四周分散的分布特征;早晚高峰通勤距离呈现梯度递增的圈层结构。(2)不同维度的建成环境因素对通勤时间和通勤距离的影响程度不一;其中距公交站距离、距市中心距离、职住比、道路邻近度是核心影响因素;人口密度、就业可达性、路网密度产生较为显著的影响。(3)从影响效应看,交通区位优越、职住趋于平衡、道路邻近度高、就业可达性好能引导网约车与多元交通协同发展。结果可为改善交通出行环境、优化居民通勤结构提供借鉴。     

中国西部平原型大城市居民通勤特征研究——以西安市为例

为解决早晚高峰交通拥堵问题,有必要研究居民通勤特征,为城市规划、管理提供参考。本文以西安为实证研究对象,采用空间分层随机抽样法发放问卷进行调查研究,并将研究结果与东部类似城市北京进行对比。研究发现西安居民通勤以公共交通为主,但地面交通中私家车高于公交车;通勤时间反映职住分离程度低于东部;以内部通勤和内向通勤为主,同时,运用引力模型对通勤流与城市空间结构的关系进行计算,发现通勤流反映城市空间结构为单中心,在分析通勤特征背后原因的基础上,从城市规划的角度提出相应的治堵建议。     

Black and White Commuting Behavior in a Large Southern City: Evidence from Atlanta

Previous research has shown that households are sensitive to commuting distance. In particular, households beyond a threshold distance move closer to the job when they change residence. The questions that motivate this paper are: how does race affect the probability of moving closer to the job when households change residence, and is there a trade off between commuting distance and neighborhood composition? Using a specialized data set the research shows that the commuting behaviors of minority and white households are consistent with the overall hypothesis that households minimize their commuting distance whenever possible. The research also shows that there is a tendency for both white and black households to choose slightly more integrated settings after changing residences. Yet, black households have to juggle the trade‐off between neighborhoods with high socioeconomic status and commute distance and those who choose higher socioeconomic status neighborhoods have longer commutes.     

北京市居民通勤特征研究——基于千余份问卷调查的分析

在千余份问卷调查的基础上,对北京市4个不同居住-就业空间结构样本区进行了不同交通方式、不同样本区居民的通勤距离、时间、效率等特征比较。结果表明:公共交通是北京市居民通勤的主要方式;随着通勤距离的增加,居民最常选择的交通方式从非机动车向公交再向地铁转变;北京市居民通勤时间相比于其他国际大都市偏长;私家车通勤效率最高;换乘对交通效率有较大负影响,在大型居住-就业中心通勤流中这一问题尤为严重;职住平衡的区域较之于居住或就业中心有着相对短的通勤距离和时间,以及相对高的非机动车出行比例。     

基于GPS数据的北京郊区就业者工作与通勤行为特征研究——以上地信息产业园为例

城市空间快速扩张及郊区中心的崛起,带来多中心城市结构的演变及一系列城市问题。已有研究较少针对对郊区就业者的工作与通勤行为,未能全面地反映新职住“空间错位”。本文基于2012年对北京上地就业者的日常活动与出行调查数据得出以下结论：①主动郊区化的侧面通勤者体现出典型的郊区生活方式： “朝九晚六”、加班明显,生活活动空间更加广域化。②在郊区化过程中被动调整的逆通勤者职住距离最长、依赖公共交通通勤、“早出晚归”、错峰出行、生活活动空间呈现以家和工作地为主的“两极化”特征。③郊区中心内部相对职住接近的就地通勤者,在享受工作与通勤便利性（如职住接近、“晚出早归”）的同时活动空间高度隔离集中在郊区中心。     

Book Review

In the absence of Soviet statistics on commuting it is estimated that, as of the late 1960's, at least 10 million people commuted to work or study in the Soviet Union, or about 12 percent of the number of public-sector workers and students. Sample surveys have shown that commuting is found not only in the suburban zones of large cities, but also around small towns, and that it involves as many as 3 million residents of rural areas who travel to work in urban places. The maximum commuting radius in the Soviet Union appears to be about 50 km, with the number of commuters dropping off sharply beyond that limit. In terms of social composition, commuters tend to be mainly young men of relatively low skills. An assessment of commuting, from the Soviet point of view, lists both positive features, such as the fuller use of labor resources around a large urban center, and negative features, such as the unproductive loss of time involved in commuting over long distances.