CAPITALIZATION OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL ATTRIBUTES INTO WAGES AND RENTS: DIFFERENCES ACROSS RESIDENTIAL,COMMERCIAL AND MIXED-USE COMMUNITIES*

ABSTRACT. The extent to which the value of locational attributes is capitalized into wages rather than rents is analyzed in a general equilibrium framework. This paper differs from earlier work by taking into account local and regional attributes and makes distinctions among residential, commercial, and mixed-use communities. The theory implies that in localities with both individuals and firms, wages and rents are simultaneously determined, while in exclusively residential localities the model is recursive. The major theoretical insights are consistent with estimations of the model using data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics.     

NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM MODELS OF URBAN LOCATION AND TRAVEL CHOICES: A RETROSPECTIVE SURVEY*

ABSTRACT The origins and development of the network equilibrium problem are traced and interrelated. Two principal formulations are considered the network equilibrium problem with variable travel demand, and the combined model of trip distribution and traffic assignment. The relation of these models to subsequent developments concerning mode choice, residential location, estimation of origin-destination tables from link flows and stochastic route choice are then reviewed.     

TIPPING AND RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION: A UNIFIED SCHELLING MODEL*

ABSTRACT This paper presents a Schelling‐type checkerboard model of residential segregation formulated as a spatial game. It shows that although every agent prefers to live in a mixed‐race neighborhood, complete segregation is observed almost all of the time. A concept of tipping is rigorously defined, which is crucial for understanding the dynamics of segregation. Complete segregation emerges and persists in the checkerboard model precisely because tipping is less likely to occur to such residential patterns. Agent‐based simulations are used to illustrate how an integrated residential area is tipped into complete segregation and why this process is irreversible. This model incorporates insights from Schelling's two classical models of segregation (the checkerboard model and the neighborhood tipping model) and puts them on a rigorous footing. It helps us better understand the persistence of residential segregation in urban America.     

TOWARD A UNIFIED THEORY OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY AND URBAN ECONOMICS*

ABSTRACT In this paper, I pursue two objectives. First, I propose a primer in economic geography relying on a simple model that can be solved analytically by undergraduate students. Second, I briefly discuss two topics that, in my opinion, should rank high on the research agenda.     

ANALYSIS OF A DYNAMIC RESIDENTIAL LOCATION CHOICE MODEL WITH TRANSACTION COSTS*

ABSTRACT. This paper incorporates transaction costs in a residential location choice model. An individual's choice is assumed to be an outcome of a two-stage process: a decision to change, or to undertake a transaction and, conditional on a change occurring, a choice of a new alternative. The dynamic choice model is aggregated to yield a Markovian model of residential location patterns. It is shown that recent contributions to dynamical urban modeling correspond to special cases of the deterministic version of this model. The Markovian model is used in a theoretical analysis of the influence of transaction costs on the properties of the stationary state. The effects of residential mobility rates and of interdependencies among individuals, caused by supply-side and density-related interactions, are also analyzed. It is shown how these dynamical factors modify the stationary state, thereby demonstrating the type of errors which may occur with static models that omit them.     

MEASURING THE IMPACT OF SEA‐LEVEL RISE ON COASTAL REAL ESTATE: A HEDONIC PROPERTY MODEL APPROACH*

ABSTRACT This study estimates the impact of sea‐level rise on coastal real estate in North Carolina using a unique integration of geospatial and hedonic property data. With rates of sea‐level rise approximately double the global average, North Carolina has one of the most vulnerable coastlines in the United States. A range of modest sea‐level rise scenarios based on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report projections (2007) are considered for four counties of North Carolina—New Hanover, Dare, Carteret, and Bertie—which represent a cross‐section of the state's coastline in geographical distribution and economic development. High‐resolution topographic LIDAR (light detection and ranging) data are used to provide accurate inundation maps for the properties that will be at risk under six different sea‐level rise scenarios. A simulation approach based on spatial hedonic models is used to provide consistent estimates of the property value losses. Considering just four coastal counties in North Carolina, the value of residential property loss without discounting in 2030 (2080) is estimated to be about $179 ($526) million for the mid‐range sea‐level rise scenarios. Low‐lying and heavily developed areas in the northern coastline are comparatively more vulnerable to the effect of sea‐level rise than the other areas.     

THE SOURCES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT: WAGES,HOUSING, AND AMENITY GAPS ACROSS AMERICAN CITIES*

ABSTRACT This paper asks whether worker utility levels—composed of wages, rents, and amenities—are being equalized among American cities. Using microdata on U.S. urban workers in 1980 and 2000, little evidence of equalization is found. Comparable workers earn higher real wages in large cities, where amenities are also concentrated. Moreover, population growth between 1980 and 2000 has not been significantly different in low‐ and high‐utility cities, suggesting that other forces are at work shaping the sorting processes that match workers and firms. We outline an alternative view of the drivers of change in the American urban system, and urban development more generally, by applying theory from economic geography.     

DISGUISED,URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE IN A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM MODEL WITH SEGMENTED LABOR MARKETS*

ABSTRACT This paper integrates the theory of segmented labor markets with the Ranis-Fei model of dualism to analyze two types of unemployment; disguised unemployment in the rural sector and urban unemployment. The major results obtained are (1) sector-specific accumulation in the urban area may raise unemployment and lower welfare and (2) sector-specific accumulation in the rural sector always raises welfare but increases disguised unemployment. These results highlight the importance of regional resource allocation and the role of the agricultural sector in reducing urban unemployment.     

包容性发展棱锥模型:后现代视阈下旅游房地产发展新维度

旅游地产是旅游开发的主要组成部分,它缎带"行"到旅游目的地的游客提供"吃、住、娱、购"以及可意象的"游"赏空间。作为闲暇经济主体的旅游地产发展正面临产业转型与资源约束的双重压力。从后现代旅游地产开发理念的视角,结合永续发展和包容性发展概念,构建出包容性发展棱锥模型及其应遵循的底一图关系等6点原则,以弥补现代旅游地产开发在产业发展模式和空间资源利用规划与设计等的不足。中国后现代旅游地产发展新维度:严格"三区四线"的空间管制:应用HST-TOD一体化立体综合开发模式;倡导JHTSD极大化及优化房地产市场法制环境。     

DEVELOPMENT POLICIES,URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEFORESTATION: THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND TAX POLICY IN A TWO-SECTOR MODEL*

ABSTRACT. We model an economy of a developing country that produces an exportable manufactured good in an urban sector and a nontradable rural good. Manufacturing faces a fixed wage, which encourages urban unemployment. Changes in cultivated area in the rural sector involve deforestation or reforestation at frontiers. Government taxes to pay for urban infrastructure that assists the manufacturing sector. Increases in urban infrastructure may relieve or exacerbate frontier deforestation but expands manufacturing employment and reduces urban unemployment. Rural transportation improvements exacerbate frontier deforestation but expand employment in the urban manufacturing sector. A larger population, ceteris paribus, widens the rural-urban wage gap and exacerbates deforestation, but may cause manufacturing employment to expand or contract.     

URBAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF HOUSING PROVISION IN NORTH AUSTRALIA*

This paper examines the role of urban social movements in shaping the built environment. It is based on empirical work undertaken in two relatively small towns, Darwin and Alice Springs, located in the Northern Territory of Australia. This approach has furnished the opportunity to undertake a true comparative study of the role of social movements in what ostensibly appear to be relatively simple urban locations situated in similar local, national and global circumstances, across the same time-period. In particular, the investigation sets out to examine the contrasting success/failure of social movements to coalesce around the problem of housing provision. The early sections of the paper review various conceptual issues related to the empirical investigation and try to arrive at a usable definition of ‘urban social movement’.     

SOLVING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL URBAN ACTIVITY MODEL OF LAND USE INTENSITY AND TRANSPORT CONGESTION*

ABSTRACT Recent developments in combining input-output and transportation planning models have made it possible to construct realistic comprehensive urban and regional activity models of land use intensity. These models form the basis for a rigorous approach to studying the interactions among urban activities. However, efficient computational solution methods for implementing such comprehensive models are still not available. In this paper, an efficient solution method for a nonlinear programming urban systems model is developed by combining Evans's partial linearization technique with Powell's hybrid method. The solution algorithm is applied to a small but realistic urban area with a detailed transportation network.     

A NOTE ON MULTIPURPOSE AND MULTISTOP SHOPPING,SALES, AND MARKET AREAS OF FIRMS*

ABSTRACT. The paper characterizes the aggregate demand addressed to firms in a situation such that consumers are allowed to purchase during the same journey several commodities from several firms located in a one-dimensional space. It is a duopoly in which both firms sell the two commodities. The individual demand is assumed to be price-inelastic.     

CULTURAL RESOURCES AND ETHNIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CASE STUDY OF THE PORTUGUESE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY IN TORONTO

The Portuguese community in Toronto is to a large degree a self-sufficient one. Over the last four decades, they have constructed a thriving, complex community, setting up organizations, businesses and communication-information services in their own language. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Portuguese real estate industry in Toronto. The study will be focused on community resources such as networks of kinship/friendship and community ties, and how these resources contribute to the formation, maintenance, and success of Portuguese-owned real estate businesses. Data were obtained primarily from a questionnaire survey that was administered to Portuguese brokers (owners of real estate agencies) who were members of the Toronto Real Estate Board. Data collected from the questionnaire survey indicate that Portuguese real estate brokers rely to a large degree on their own community (‘ethnic’) resources — Portuguese friends, the media, and relatives — in starting and/or operating their current businesses. Within this context, Portuguese friends occupy a central role as an important source in providing business contacts. Real estate agencies owned by Portuguese brokers are community oriented. Portuguese customers, business location within/near to the community, and a good reputation with Portuguese clients and the community were noted by Portuguese brokers as the major factors contributing to the economic success of their businesses. Although relatively little research has been conducted in Canada on ethnic entrepreneurship, we can speculate that the main characteristic of the Portuguese real estate business — a heavy reliance on ‘community resources' in serving a geographically segregated co-ethnic market — is common among Southern Mediterranean immigrant groups in Canada. Further comparative studies in this area would enhance our understanding of the complexities of ethnic entrepreneurship. La communauté portugaise de Toronto est, en grande partie, auto-suffisante. Pendant les quatre dernières décennies, les Portugais ont construit une communauté complexe et prospère, démarrant des organisations, des entreprises et des services de communication et d'information dans leur propre langue. Le but de ce travail est d'examiner l'industrie immobilière portugaise à Toronto. L'étude sera plutôt concentrée sur les ressources communautaires telles qu'un réseau de parenté/amitié et des liens communautaires, et le procèdé par lequel ces ressources contribuent à la formation, au maintien et au succès de l'industrie immobilière des Portugais. Les données ont été obtenues surtout à partir d'un questionnaire/enquête distribué aux courtiers portugais (propriétaires d'agences immobilières), membres du Conseil Immobilier de Toronto. Les données recueillies grâce à l'enquête indiquent que les courtiers immobiliers portugais dépendent largement des ressources (?ethniques?) de leur propre communauté-des amis portugais, des médias, et des proches — pour démarrer et/ou diriger leurs entreprises. Dans ce contexte, les amis portugais occupent un rôle central en fournissant des contacts d'affaires. Les agences immobilières portugaises sont orientées vers la communauté portugaise. Les clients portugais, le local de l'entreprise, au sein de la communauté ou près d'elle, et une bonne réputation, ont été identifiés par les courtiers portugais comme les facteurs les plus importants, contribuant au succès économique de leurs entreprises. En dépit du fait que relativement peu de recherches ont été menées au Canada au sujet des entreprises ethniques, nous pouvons supposer que la caractéristique principale de l'entreprise immobilière portugaise — une grande dépendance des ?ressources communautaires?, en servant un marché co-ethnique géographiquement isolé — est commune chez les immigrants de la Meditérannée du Sud, au Canada. Notre compréhension de la complexité des entreprises ethniques serait améliorée par d'autres études comparatives sur ce sujet.     

LIFE CYCLE AND MIGRATION TO URBAN AND RURAL AREAS: ESTIMATION OF A MIXED LOGIT MODEL ON FRENCH DATA*

ABSTRACT This paper examines which types of individuals are attracted to or repelled from rural and urban areas in France. Migration decisions among urban centers, suburbs, and rural areas are examined for three age groups. Differences between locations are assumed to be driven by agglomeration economies and externalities resulting from densities. We therefore stress the role of labor‐market size, land markets, and commuting time in migration decisions. The results from multinomial mixed logits show that large labor markets attract the youngest and in particular educated individuals. Larger family size favors migration from city centers to suburbs, whereas divorce and widowhood increase the probability of moving to an urban center.