STRUCTURAL ESTIMATION OF RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY AND HOUSING TENURE CHOICE*

ABSTRACT. This study is devoted to studying households'decisions to move and whether to rent or own after moving. It employs dynamic discrete choice models which condition households'decisions on their circumstances at every point in time during the length of the observation while accounting for individual heterogeneity. The results show that key dynamic elements, captured by means of lagged dependent variables, as well as household heterogeneity, are significant determinants of the tenure choice and mobility decisions. Moreover, homeowners are found to be responsive to housing market conditions when adjusting their housing stock. Housing-price appreciation is found to discourage renters from becoming homeowners. Finally, our results reject the proportional monetary transaction costs specification suggesting that monetary transaction costs might be fixed.     

Money and prices in thirteenth-century Venice

Prices and salaries rose in Venice between 1173 and 1282. The supply of money also probably increased. Wine, grain, and commodity prices, as well as magistrates' salaries, are here collected from documentary sources to illustrate this rise in prices. Evidence from silver mining, foreign trade, banking, and diplomacy seems to demonstrate an increase in the supply of money, but price inflation (the Fisher equation, MV = PT) cannot be definitely illustrated because velocity and transaction costs cannot yet be established for medieval Venice. To clarify these prices, this study also briefly describes the coins and moneys of account used in Venice in this century.     

The impact of bargaining delays under the threat of eminent domain

Developers seeking to assemble complementary parcels of land will likely encounter strategic behavior by landowners. Using a property‐level data set from Florida's Department of Transportation covering the period January 2000 to July 2014, I test whether bargaining delays lead to higher final transaction prices. Given the nature of the data, I can compare properties within the same roadway project to estimate the effect of delayed negotiations. My empirical estimates indicate that bargaining delays lead to increased final transaction prices. The magnitude of this effect is approximately 7 percent for the average holdout, however, the effect is nonlinear and diminishes over time.     

New Evidence of the Effect of Transaction Costs on Residential Mobility*

Abstract. Transaction costs have attracted considerable attention in the theoretical literature on residential mobility. Transaction costs are thought to cause suboptimal consumption of housing but may also negatively affect labor market outcomes. In the current paper, we demonstrate empirically for the Netherlands that transaction costs have a strong negative effect on the owners' probability of moving. Under a range of different specifications, it appears that a 1 percent‐point increase in the value of transaction costs—as a percentage of the value of the residence—decreases residential mobility rates by (at least) 8 percent. The estimates imply that ownership to ownership mobility rates would be substantially higher in the absence of the current 6 percent ad valorem buyer transaction tax. Our estimates are consistent with the observation that in the Netherlands ad valorem transaction costs mainly consist of buyer transaction costs.     

Norms,coercion and contracting in the struggle against ‘harmful’ tax competition

The world's richest and most powerful countries have become increasingly concerned about revenue lost to tax havens, and fear that tax competition might spark a fiscal ‘race to the bottom’, yet they have failed to pressure much smaller and weaker tax haven states into reform. This article argues that the OECD-sponsored campaign against ‘harmful’ tax competition has been unsuccessful because regulative norms have severely constrained the means legitimately able to be employed. Early decisions on how the campaign was designed subsequently brought norms into play which have not only ruled out the use of coercion, but also the use of side payments, despite the massive potential benefits available to both sides from a deal between tax havens and OECD states. The failure to strike a deal cannot be explained by high transaction costs nor by corporate lobbying in defence of tax shelters. Regulative norms can thus affect economic bargaining in the international arena by preventing mutually advantageous exchanges that are nevertheless regarded as inappropriate.     

The Distribution of Subsidized Agricultural Credit in Brazil: Do Interest Groups Matter?

This article examines the unequal distribution of credit and credit subsidies in the Brazilian agricultural sector from 1969 to 1990. Total credit subsidies exceeded US$ 40 billion in this period. The distribution across crops is studied econometrically. After controlling for area, the crops that benefited most had superior access to credit institutions, were tradeable, had high prices, and were not perennials. Proxies for collective action by crop were an unimportant determinant of credit policy, while a bias in favour of large producers was evident. Alternative explanations for this bias are discussed, including collective action by farm size and transaction costs in lending.     

Spatial Search for the Lowest Price

Search for low prices often requires that individuals make decisions not only about the optimal amount of search, but also about the optimal route to be taken through a set of known locations. In this paper, the fixed sample size strategy used in economic models of search is extended to account for the travel costs that are incurred as alternatives are examined. Analytical results for the optimal amount of search are given, and alternative routing algorithms for a modified version of the traveling-salesman problem are evaluated.     

FEEDBACK BETWEEN REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS*

ABSTRACT This paper considers the implications of increasing land supply constraints in the United States on urban demand. First, because shifts in demand are now capitalized more into the price of land, house prices in some metropolitan areas have grown increasingly unaffordable to typical households. This might have an effect on the fundamental character of such cities. Second, the effect of home owners’ financial interests as landowners on their decisions about what regulations or investments in their communities to support may become stronger. Third, researchers may now be able to better use land prices to make inferences about urban demand. However, interpreting real estate prices still is tricky.     

Factors Affecting Small Farmers' Access to Institutional Credit in Rural Orissa,India

This study uses original survey data from six villages to locate and analyse factors inhibiting small farmers' access to formal credit, including credit supply, bargaining strength, bureaucratic formalities, asset-based lending policies, informal tenancy contracts, extended processing procedures and caste barriers. The survey data confirm a correlation between higher overall transaction costs and smaller farm size, and also between arrearages and larger farm size. The analysis leads to the suggestion that policies should be directed both towards reducing the overall transaction costs of formal loans to small farmers, and towards improved collection processes.     

陕西省农村土地流转迟缓的供求影响因素与机制探析

农村土地流转长期受到决策者的鼓励,但我国农村土地使用权流转率一直偏低,西部地区尤其如此。本文试图以陕西省为例,通过问卷调查和访谈,分析农地社会保障功能等因素影响农地使用权流转率的作用机制;并从供给和需求两个方面,分析了经济落后地区农村土地使用权流转率偏低的原因。研究结果表明,农地流转受到现行的以提供社会保障为基本目的的农地制度的约束,任何旨在提高农地流转率的改革措施,都必须考虑现行农地制度的社会保障功能和地区差异,实行因地制宜的农地流转制度。     

Production,Consumption, and the Allocation of Labor By a Peasant in a Periodic Marketing System

The allocation of time by a part-time marketer between subsistence production and marketing links production and consumption decisions in a periodic marketing system. Distinctions between full- and part-time marketers are emphasized. The model of the part-time trader predicts changes in the time devoted to each activity and in outputs as relative prices change. Interpretations can be made regarding the amount of effort devoted to, and the rewards from, periodic marketing.     

PREFERENCE HETEROGENEITY AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY*

ABSTRACT We investigate the effect of preference heterogeneity between skilled and unskilled workers on agglomeration, and we identify a new source of dependence of equilibrium prices on the demand properties shaped by the inter‐regional distribution of workers. We find a new preference effect, and we show that when the intensity of skilled workers' preference for the modern good and its variety is strong enough, prices charged by firms may even increase when the mass of local firms increases, therefore acting as a new dispersion force when trade costs are low or as a new agglomeration force when trade costs are high.     

LOCATING OUTSIDE A LINEAR CITY CAN BENEFIT CONSUMERS*

ABSTRACT We investigate the effects of restricting the locations of firms in Hotelling duopoly models. In standard location‐price models, the equilibrium distance between firms is too great from the viewpoint of consumer welfare. Thus, restricting the locations of firms and shortening the distance between them improves consumer welfare by reducing prices and transport costs. We introduce strategic reward contracts into location‐price models and find that, in contrast to the above result, restrictions on the locations of firms reduce consumer welfare. These restrictions reduce transport costs but increase prices by changing the strategic commitments of the firms.     

Fabric for Seventeenth-Century Children and Adolescents' Clothes

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the information on clothing which can be taken from the relatively newly exploited source of the probate account (as opposed to the probate inventory). The accounts only itemize the costs of clothing children up to apprenticeship, or to marriage, not the fully adult. Fortunately for this author's interests, the bulk of the accounts cover the children of parents with moveable goods worth under £100, under yeoman status. This particular article focuses on the range of prices that can be gleaned from the accounts on the prices of fabrics, and demonstrates that the same fabrics in the seventeenth century came in a very large range of prices and qualities. It differs from Professor Shammas' conclusions. The costs of clothing minors rose in the seventeenth century. It examines the prices of boys' and girls' clothes that can be gathered from the accounts, and also the types of fabric that were used to make each type of garment for them, taking into account the economic status of each child. It concludes that although the finer, more expensive, fabrics more commonly made up clothes for better-off children, this did not always follow : nor did the poor always wear the cheapest fabrics. There was no clear social stratification, although there was a rough one.     

POLICY-INDUCED DISTORTIONS IN SPATIAL COST SURFACES: THE CASE OF ONTARIO HYDRO

Underlying much of location theory is a presumption that the costs and revenues of enterprise vary from place to place. Such variations describe spatial cost and revenue surfaces to which locational decisions may be referenced. Changes in Ontario Hydro's pricing practices between 1906 and 1981 illustrate the substantial impact of policy on three major sources of spatial variation in costs. In consequence, it appears that locational decisions are increasingly referenced to artificial, policy-distorted cost surfaces. Prospects of achieving a spatially efficient configuration of economic activity appear to be severely compromised.
La «théorie d'emplacement >> se fonde sur la présomption que les dépenses et les revenus d'une enterprise varient selon l'endroit ou elle est située. Le choix de l'emplacement d'un project est affecté par ces variations de couts d'espace et de possibilités de revenus. Les changements dans les practiques des prix d'hydro Ontario entre 1906 et 1981 illustrent les impacts considerables de cette politique sur trois sources principales de variations des couts. Il semble cependant que les décisions basées sur la «théorie d'emplacement >> soient faussées d'autant plus que les couts se révélent irrealistes. Base sur cette théorie les chances de parvenir a une situation économique optimale apparaissent être sévérement compromises.     

A SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL AUTOREGRESSIVE LOCAL ESTIMATION FOR THE PARIS HOUSING MARKET

ABSTRACT This original study examines the potential of a spatiotemporal autoregressive Local (LSTAR) approach in modeling transaction prices for the housing market in inner Paris. We use a data set from the Paris Region notary office (Chambre des notaires d’Île‐de‐France) which consists of approximately 250,000 transactions units between the first quarter of 1990 and the end of 2005. We use the exact X–Y coordinates and transaction date to spatially and temporally sort each transaction. We first choose to use the STAR approach proposed by Pace et al., 1998 . This method incorporates a spatiotemporal filtering process into the conventional hedonic function and attempts to correct for spatial and temporal correlative effects. We find significant estimates of spatial dependence effects. Moreover, using an original methodology, we find evidence of a strong presence of both spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the model. It suggests that spatial and temporal drifts in households socio‐economic profiles and local housing market structure effects are certainly major determinants of the price level for the Paris Housing Market.     

Interorganizational Collaboration Networks in Economic Development Policy: An Exponential Random Graph Model Analysis*

Regional economic development competition can be inefficient and destructive because decisions by one governmental unit can impose both externalities on its neighbors. Collaborative networks of multiple stakeholders within and across jurisdictions are an increasingly crucial component of regional economic development. In this article, we focus on the emergence of voluntary and self‐organizing network relationships among local governments to address economic development concerns. The motivations and decisions of local actors play a critical role in shaping and implementing regional collaboration. On a micro level, the collaboration choices are shaped by three primary factors: the transaction costs reflected in the configuration of relationships in which an actor is embedded; the organizational similarities (homophily); and the resource dependencies that shape the local actors' preferences for forming relationships with other specific actors. We utilize an exponential random graph model (ERGM) to test hypotheses regarding the most prominent observed patterns of network relationships within and across different organizational sectors. The results demonstrate that both reciprocity and social clustering structures are preferred by both government and nongovernment organizations. These results suggest that interorganizational collaboration for economic development requires more than simple exchange relationships. Rather, network actors may be better served by participating in a densely clustered network that is capable of maintaining credible commitments to collective solutions.     

The Effects of Case-Mix Reimbursement on Ohio Medicaid Nursing Home Costs

This article examines empirically the effects of the Ohio case-mix reimbursement system on nursing home costs. The results show that case-mix is the single most important factor affecting both direct-care (nursing staff) and total per diem costs. Although other factors, such as bedsize, occupancy rate, ownership status, county per capita income, and the demand for nursing home care, also affeet costs; they have far smaller effects on costs than case-mix. Further, the results show that the cost differentials between for-profit and nonprofit facilities are largely explained by differences in cost response to case-mix and, to a lesser extent, by differences in cost response to bedsize, Medicaid utilization, county per capita income, demand for nursing home beds, and occupancy rate. The for-profit facilities in this study cost significantly less than their nonprofit counterparts.     

Domestic timber auctions and flexibly specialized forestry in Japan

In Japan, a well-established, widespread system of local timber market auctions, featuring the exchange of privately owned logs, is increasingly threatened by imports organized according to mass production principles. This article assesses the evolution, rationale, and functions of Japan's timber auctions that were primarily created in post-war Japan to provide key roles linking small-scale (private) forest owners to flexibly specialized value chains that are consummated in Japanese homes. The conceptual point of departure for the analysis is flexible specialization theory's interpretation of industrialization as a contest between mass production and small-scale production. We extend this discussion by giving analytical priority to markets as an institution distinct from firms and by interpreting markets from the perspectives of transaction costs and embeddedness, concepts normally deemed antagonistic to one another. Empirically, four case studies of timber auctions located in central and southern Japan are analyzed based on personal interviews with auction managers and participants within the context of broader trends in forestry. Three auctions feature 'silent' bidding and one involves open bidding. While the auctions exhibit varying characteristics, they continue to be the fulcrum of localized forestry systems, even as they are threatened by declining prices driven by imported wood and by restructurings within the Japanese solid wood sector. The continued resiliency of the flexible specialization model, and the auctions that are at its core, has important implications for forestry throughout Japan.     

Producer Services,Transaction Activities,and Cities: Rethinking Occupational Categories in Economic Geography

Applying insights from 'new institutional economics' to classify economic activities or occupations avoids some problems for which conventional classifications of services and particularly producer services have long been criticized. In institutionalist thinking the mixture of organizational forms such as market, hierarchy or network in an economy is mainly determined by transaction costs, which can in turn be correlated to specific 'transaction activities'. Typical transaction activities can be identified in markets and in other institutional arrangements, allowing the classification of real economic activities, occupations or firms as transactional or not. Many other commonly applied labels like informational related activities appear comparatively imprecise. This categorization and differentiation sheds new light on discussions about spatial development, from the world city debate to claims about the presumed role of high-tech occupations in metropolitan areas. It is argued that transactional occupations, especially those requiring higher qualifications, can be expected to be highly concentrated in larger agglomerations. In contrast, many non-transactional occupations though requiring high qualifications and usually also regarded as basic for metropolitan economies, like parts of R&D, are not necessarily concentrated there.