Regional Science and Urban Economics This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Endogenous Generation of amenities and the dynamics of city structure
Publication date: Available online 30 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Mihai Tivadar, Hubert Jayet (Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics)
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 31, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

What drives vertical fiscal interactions? Evidence from the 1980 Crude Oil Windfall Act
Publication date: Available online 29 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Fidel Perez-Sebastian, Ohad RavehAbstractIn economies with multi-level governments, why would a change in the fiscal rule of a government in one level lead to a fiscal response by a government in a different level? The literature focused primarily on the standard common-pool problem, while giving little attention to the potential role of complementarity or substitutability (CS) between the public goods supplied by the two governments. This paper fills this gap by focusing on the latter channel. First, we illustrate its ...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 30, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

An examination of the first-time homebuyer tax credit
Publication date: Available online 27 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Erik HembreAbstractA major policy response to the 2008 housing crisis was the First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit, worth up to $8000. To estimate the tax credit effects on homeownership, I construct a quarterly first-time homebuyer time-series using American Housing Survey data and utilize a difference-in-difference framework using variation across income levels among first-time homebuyers. I estimate the tax credit induced 399,846 first-time homebuyers and calculate an economic cost of $27,010 per induced homeowner. Estima...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 27, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Rental Housing Discrimination Across Protected Classes: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
Publication date: Available online 20 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Judson Murchie, Jindong PangAbstractThis paper provides the first evidence of how landlord treatment of rental housing applicants varies across race, gender, religion, sexuality, and family status. We adopt a randomized correspondence audit design by sending inquiry emails to randomly selected property owners or agents from Craigslist. The signals are conveyed by names, body text, and signature-line quotations. The findings suggest landlords have preferences about tenants and make decisions based on signals communicated...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 21, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

The effect of housing wealth shocks on work and retirement decisions
Publication date: Available online 10 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Jaclene Begley, Sewin ChanAbstractUsing panel data from 2000 to 2012, we show that unanticipated zip code-level shocks to home values affect retirement, retirement reversals, and Social Security claims. Among older men, homeowners experiencing moderately negative housing price shocks are less likely to retire, more likely to reverse retirement in some cases, and more likely to delay claiming Social Security relative to those experiencing positive shocks. We find similar responses among specific subgroups of older women,...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 10, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

The long-run impact of zoning: Institutional hysteresis and durable capital in Seattle, 1920–2015
Publication date: Available online 6 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Tate TwinamAbstractThis paper examines the coevolution of land use and zoning in Seattle from 1920 to 2015. Multiple waves of zoning and land use conversion data at the parcel level allow for a decomposition of the long-run effects of zoning and an exploration of the mechanisms through which zoning influenced future land use. In particular, I disentangle short-run impacts on land use from long-term institutional hysteresis, showing that the latter played a sizable role in shaping future land use. Additionally, data on va...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 7, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Fair market rent and the distribution of rents in Los Angeles
Publication date: Available online 24 September 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Daniel McMillen, Ruchi SinghAbstractA unique data source is used to analyze the effect of the fair market rent (FMR) on the distribution of apartment rents in Los Angeles for 2007–2015. The data set includes the results of semi-annual surveys of rents in Los Angeles since 2007. The surveys include information on location, characteristics of the property, and a rating of the overall quality of the building exterior. Histograms suggest there is a tendency for rents to cluster at values around the FMR, particularly for...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

What determines UK housing equity withdrawal in later life?
Publication date: Available online 4 October 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Declan French, Donal McKillop, Tripti SharmaAbstractThe UK government has encouraged the role of the home as a welfare asset especially among the elderly. Although UK pensioners express a desire to use their homes to support their retirement, few actually downsize or borrow against the value of their home using an equity release product. In this paper, we examine housing equity withdrawal behaviour by analysing the cost and benefits of housing equity withdrawal, variations in financial behaviours and attitudes to homeown...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - October 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Eliciting preferences for urban parks
Publication date: Available online 11 September 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Toke Emil Panduro, Cathrine Ulla Jensen, Thomas Hedemark Lundhede, Kathrine von Graevenitz, Bo Jellesmark ThorsenAbstractThe hedonic pricing method has been used extensively to obtain implicit prices for availability of urban green space, but few have obtained households' preference parameters. We elicit preferences and estimate willingness to pay functions for park availability in Copenhagen using an approach that places identifying restrictions on the utility function. We do this for two different measures of park a...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - September 13, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Who benefits from rental assistance? Evidence from a natural experiment
Publication date: Available online 10 September 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Doron Sayag, Noam ZussmanAbstractRent subsidies were provided to students living in central Jerusalem between 2006 and 2011 in order to encourage urban renewal. This program led to a marked increase in the number of students renting apartments in the city center. Using diff-in-diffs hedonic estimations, we find that 70–80% of the rent subsidies remained in the hands of the students, within the broad range of incidence rates found worldwide. (Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics)
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - September 12, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

The impact of in-house unnatural death on property values: Evidence from Hong Kong
This study evaluates the geographic and temporal scope of the impact of unnatural death on property values in Hong Kong. By exploiting the spatial and intertemporal variation of the shock in a difference-in-differences approach, we find significant negative externalities of unnatural death incidence on neighborhood housing values. On average, units in which an unnatural death occurred experience a 25% drop in value following the death. Nearby units on the same floor also show a significant price drop of 4.5%. Prices of units on other floors of the same building decline about 2.6%. Units in other buildings of the same estat...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - September 5, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Robust LM tests for spatial dynamic panel data models
In this study, we introduce adjusted Rao's score test statistics (Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests) for a spatial dynamic panel data (SDPD) model that includes a contemporaneous spatial lag, a time lag and a spatial-time lag. The maximum likelihood estimator for the estimation of SDPD models can have asymptotic bias because of individual and time fixed effects. Bias arises since the limiting distributions of the score functions derived from the corresponding concentrated log-likelihood functions are not centered on zero. First, we show how the score functions should be adjusted to avoid the effect of asymptotic bias on the s...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - September 1, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Financing affordable and sustainable homeownership with Fixed-COFI mortgages
Publication date: Available online 12 August 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): By Wayne Passmore, Alexander H. von HafftenAbstractThe 30-year fixed-rate fully amortizing mortgage (or “traditional fixed-rate mortgage”) was a substantial innovation when first developed during the Great Depression; however, it has three major flaws. First, homeowner equity accumulates slowly during the first decade. Many lenders require large down payments because of slow equity accumulation. Second, in each monthly mortgage payment, homeowners substantially compensate capital markets investors for the ability to ...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - August 13, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Credit risk of low income mortgages
Publication date: Available online 31 July 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Hamilton Fout, Grace Li, Mark Palim, Ying PanAbstractUsing Fannie Mae data on purchase mortgage acquisitions, we examine the relative credit performance of low and moderate income homebuyers. We first document the higher observed default rates of low and moderate income borrowers relative to higher income borrowers for three different historical periods. Second, for the loans originated between 2002 and 2007 applying the tighter underwriting standards of the post-crisis period dramatically reduces default risks across inco...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - August 1, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research

Alternative mortgage contracts and affordability- overview by Mark J. Garmaise
Publication date: Available online 30 July 2018Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Mark J. GarmaisAbstractThis paper provides an overview of alternative mortgage designs and discusses their potential role in alleviating problems of housing affordability. Alternative mortgages with backloaded payments were popular in the pre-crisis years and, from a theoretical perspective, they should have served to ease borrower constraints and to facilitate home purchases. There is some evidence that alternative mortgages perform this function for young, highly-educated borrowers. It also appears that alternative mortg...
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - July 30, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research