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Density, Spillovers and Amenities

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Hilton Atlanta, 215
Hosted By: American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
  • Chair: Jan Brueckner, University of California-Irvine

Urban Density and Firms’ Stock Returns

Mahsa Memarian
,
IESE Business School
Carles Vergara-Alert
,
IESE Business School

Abstract

Firms located in dense urban areas present higher productivity due to the flow of ideas and innovation in these areas. Through this productivity channel, the urban density characteristics of the areas where firms are located affect the stock returns. We use high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth to develop an exogenous measure of potential density increase (PDI) for the 95 most populated metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. This measure represents the proportion of area in the total area within a 1 hour drive from the center of the MSA that could rapidly increase its density. We find that firms located in areas with a high potential density increase present lower stock returns: on average a 10% higher PDI of an MSA results in a 0.29% lower excess stock return of firms located in this MSA.

Separating Selection From Spillover Effects: Using the Mode to Estimate the Return to City Size

Stuart Rosenthal
,
Syracuse University
Hugo Jales
,
Syracuse University
Boqian Jiang
,
Syracuse University

Abstract

We develop a new method to identify and control for selection when estimating the productivity effects of city size. For single peaked factor return distributions, selecting out low-performing agents has no effect on modal productivity but reduces the CDF evaluated at the mode. Spillovers from agglomeration have the reverse effect. This holds regardless of whether selection arises from the decision to participate or location choice. Estimates based on law firm productivity, wages for married women and wages for full-time men all confirm that selection contributes to urban productivity and that doubling city size causes productivity to increase by 1-2 percent.

Unlocking Amenities: Estimating Public Good Complementarity

David Albouy
,
University of Illinois
Peter Christensen
,
University of Illinois
Ignacio Sarmiento
,
University of Illinois

Abstract

Research on public goods generally considers the value of individual public goods in isolation, when in fact there may be strong complementarities between them. This study examines the implications of public goods complementarities for economic valuation and efficient public investment, using the setting of public safety and open space in inner cities. Cross-sectional, difference-in-difference, and instrumental-variable estimates from Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia all indicate that local crime lowers the amenity value of public parks to nearby residents. Public safety improvements ``unlock'' the value of open-space amenities, and could raise the value that properties receive from adjacent parks from $22 billion to $31 billion in those three cities. Ignoring these complementarities risks over-estimating benefits in dangerous areas, under-estimating benefits in poor areas or conflating reduced amenity value with the preferences of local populations, and under-estimating benefits overall. While safety is more fundamental in a hierarchy of amenities, open spaces are not a luxury.

The Internal Geography of Firms

Oren Ziv
,
Michigan State University
Dominick Bartelme
,
University of Michigan

Abstract

We document four facts regarding the geographic location patterns of firms: firms' establishments are clustered together; as they expand, firms place new establishments further away from their center and become more dispersed; larger, more productive firms are more dispersed, even accounting for the number of establishments in the firm; and establishments that are further away from their firm center are smaller and less productive. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that firms face internal distance costs and that these costs may significantly affect the geographic distribution of economic activity. We find substantial heterogeneity in our results. Larger firms are less clustered, and firm size appears to attenuate the relationship between dispersion and productivity: establishments of larger firms do not decline in size with distance, and larger firms that are more dispersed are not more productive.
Discussant(s)
Christopher Severen
,
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Ronni Paven
,
University of Rochester
Sanghoon Lee
,
University of British Columbia
Junfu Zhang
,
Clark University
JEL Classifications
  • G1 - General Financial Markets
  • R1 - General Regional Economics