clubs local public goods and transportation models a synthesis abstract clubs local public goods and transportation models are analyzed within a unified model the emphasis is on the derivation of optimal allocation pricing and the size of the sharing group we derive the conditions under which optimal prices will yield surplus or deficit as well as those under which competitive provision will be efficient given heterogeneous tastes we prove that segregation according to tastes is generally efficient although several cases where this result does not hold are also discussed we show that the existing literature is unnecessarily restrictive and that the unified approach suggested here considerably extends the existing analysis of clubs local public goods and the transportation problems

the intensity and timing of investment the case of land the authors model the decision to replace durable capital when intensity is variable decisions of this type include land redevelopment decisions where the density of residential or commercial development is a choice variable as well as capital replacement decisions where capacity is variable the authors provide a general yet simple formation of the problem using an optimal stopping framework they characterize the value of the project the timing of investment and the intensity of development the authors show that intensity interacts in important ways with timing taxes and project values the ability to vary intensity raises hurdle rents and delays development decisions copyright 1994 by american economic association

designing development planning charges settlement patterns cost recovery and public facilities there is a large body of literature that discusses the control of settlement patterns using traditional planning instruments whilst there is some theoretical literature discussing the use of development charges to influence settlement patterns by addressing market failure there is limited literature examining how such charging is implemented in practice this paper presents the theoretical basis for development charging based on the pigouvian tradition and discusses how these charges can be calibrated it identifies the potential for second best approaches including hypothecation of revenues this approach is distinguished from infrastructure charging which is a cost recovery instrument the irish system of infrastructure charging is assessed as a means of exploring how current instrument design could be improved to align with policy aspirations using the lessons that theory provides

output stock volatility and political uncertainty in a natural experiment germany 1880 1940 why does stock volatility increase when output declines the theory of investment under uncertainty implies that political uncertainty may simultaneously increase volatility and reduce output though cause and effect are typically hard to separate the transition from imperial to weimar germany offers a natural experiment because major political events left clear traces on stock prices current and past increases in volatility are associated with output declines consistent with u s experience however political events are more clearly the source of volatility and the results support the view that the relationship between volatility and output ref lects the joint effects of political factors why does stock volatility change over time and why is it higher in recessions though the basic facts are well established huang and kracaw 1984 schwert 1989a romer 1990 pindyck 1991a the causal link between volatility and business slumps is unclear slumps may cause volatility volatility may cause slumps or both may be the consequence of some other more clearly exogenous factor political uncertainty may represent such an exogenous factor consider the great depression in the united states major changes in economic policy occurred in the 1930s and even larger changes were a possibility the highly volatile stock market of the 1930s may very well have ref lected a nonnegligible f luctuating probability that the united states would go socialist the same uncertainty about economic policy may also have caused a slump in business investment and reduced consumer spending though the explanation has appeal political uncertainty was not clearly exogenous a critic could say that higher volatility and the radical nature of policy debate were consequences of the decline in output and the depression itself had other causes as schwert 1989b points out in a more general context we can easily construct links between volatility and the business cycle but causation is hard to pin down this paper looks at stock volatility and output in a case marked by a clear exogenous political shock until the start of world war i in 1914 imperial germany had a stable limited government weimar germany after the war

strategic control of growth in a system of cities abstract this paper provides an analysis of the supply restriction model of growth controls growth controls in such a model harm consumers while enriching landowners and they will only be adopted if landowners have political power in the model this power is manifested in the city government s use of a social welfare that takes both landlord and consumer welfare into account since cities cannot be small if the supply restriction inherent in growth controls is to have an impact strategic interactions must be considered in the analysis of city choices a general model is presented and an extended example based on leontief preferences is then considered comparative static analysis of nash equilibria in the leontief case shows that perturbations of preferences or other characteristics of a single city can have important spillover effects that alter the choices of all cities in the region

does smart growth matter to public finance this paper addresses four fundamental questions about the relationship between smart growth a fiscally motivated anti sprawl policy movement and public finance do low density spatially extensive land use patterns cost more to support if so how large an influence does sprawl actually have how does the influence differ among types of spending and how does it compare with the influence of other relevant factors the analysis which is based on the entire continental us and uses a series of spatial econometric models to evaluate one aggregate total direct and nine disaggregate education fire protection housing and community development libraries parks and recreation police protection roadways sewerage and solid waste disposal measures of spending provides the most detailed evidence to date of how sprawl affects the vast sum of revenue that local governments spend every year

on the theory of growth controls numerous empirical studies have examined the effect of growth controls on housing prices these studies have used many different techniques ranging from hedonic price model estimation to paired comparisons but have all come to the same conclusion growth controls raise the price of housing in theory there are both demand and supply side explanations which need not be mutually exclusive for these observed price differences on the supply side housing caps zoning restrictions limitations on the amount of developable land and other forms of growth control may reduce the supply of housing over time this in turn may produce scarcity effects which manifest as shifts or other changes in the housing supply curve and attendant price increases on the demand side to the extent that growth controls may reduce or internalize expected negative externalities and or congestion costs associated with growth controls may also produce amenity effects such amenity effects manifest as changes in the demand curve and likewise may be capitalized in land values and wages e g the price of a house rises as commute time falls

the fundamentals of land prices and urban growth abstract in a very simple model in which capital is durable and landowners have perfect foresight the price of urban land has four additive components the value of agricultural land rent the cost of conversion the value of accessibility and the value of expected future rent increases a growth premium in rapidly growing cities the growth premium may easily account for half of the average price of land and may create a large gap between the price of land at the boundary minus conversion cost and the value of agricultural land rent

monetary policy tradeoffs between financial stability and price stability we analyze the impact of interest rate policy on financial stability in an environment where banks can experience runs on their short term liabilities forcing them to sell assets at fire sale prices

the effect of impact fees on the price of new single family housing this paper provides new evidence on the effects of impact fees on housing prices using an inventory of single family housing sale transactions in the 38 cities and towns within king county washington for the period 1991 2000 although the effect of impact fees on housing prices has been examined previously earlier studies have been limited by methodological deficiencies this paper examines the effect of impact fees on new housing and their differential effect on housing price based on the quality of housing and finds that the effect of impact fees on the price of new housing is quite significant and elastic raising new home prices by about 166 per cent of the amount of the fee the increase is 358 per cent for the higher quality homes and is statistically insignificant for the lower quality homes

silver bullet or trojan horse the effects of inclusionary zoning on local housing markets in the united states many local governments are adopting inclusionary zoning iz as a means of producing affordable housing without direct public subsidies in this paper panel data on iz in the san francisco metropolitan area and suburban boston are used to analyse how much affordable housing the programmes produce and how iz affects the prices and production of market rate housing the amount of affordable housing produced under iz has been modest and depends primarily on how long iz has been in place results from suburban boston suggest that iz has contributed to increased housing prices and lower rates of production during periods of regional house price appreciation in the san francisco area iz also appears to increase housing prices in times of regional price appreciation but to decrease prices during cooler regional markets there is no evidence of a statistically significant effect of iz on new housing development in the bay area

assessing the relative merits of development charges and transferable development rights in an uncertain world traditionally regulatory instruments have been used to achieve planning objectives however emerging market based policy instruments such as transferable development rights a quantity based app

the impact of public information on the stock market we study the relation between the number of news announcements reported daily by dow jones company and aggregate measures of securities market activity including trading volume and market returns we find that the number of dow jones announcements and market activity are directly related and that the results are robust to the addition of factors previously found to influence financial markets such as day of the week dummy variables news importance as proxied by large new york times headlines and major macroeconomic announcements and non information sources of market activity as measured by dividend capture and triple witching trading however the observed relation between news and market activity is not particularly strong and the patterns in news announcements do not explain the day of the week seasonalities in market activity our analysis of the dow jones database confirms the difficulty of linking volume and volatility to observed measures of information

infrastructure financing and urban development abstract historically additions to public infrastructure necessitated by urban growth have been financed under a cost sharing approach in the last several decades however financing of growth has increasingly relied on land use exactions where new residents pay for the cost of incremental infrastructure despite the emergence of a formal growth control literature there has been virtually no formal analysis of the connection between infrastructure financing and urban development to provide such an analysis this paper investigates three different schemes for financing incremental infrastructure within an urban growth model the analysis compares an impact fee scheme to two types of cost sharing schemes deriving the effects on urban growth and land values of switching to the impact fee scheme the efficient financing scheme is also identified

why do cities use supply side strategies to mitigate traffic congestion externalities abstract for traffic congestion arising from sprawl planners prefer supply side strategies over the demand side strategies recommended by economists our model provides a rationale why wealth induced congestion increases a planner s social discount rate which decreases future costs of supply side solutions

is water policy limiting residential growth evidence from california rapid population growth and increasing water costs have led western states to condition development on long term water availability using original survey data this paper examines the effects of water screening policies on california s housing supply from 1994 to 2003 panel regressions indicate that these policies significantly slowed housing growth however impact fees based on the costs of residential water connections do not have this effect and may constitute a preferred policy to enhance the social efficiency of screening policies regulators should encourage the adoption of conservation oriented water rates which are associated with significant savings in residential water use

spatial patterns of residential development abstract a simple dynamic model of residential development with durable housing where all households are identical and all developers have perfect foresight is studied it is shown that unlike the case of static models it is quite possible that house size decreases and thus population density increases with distance from the city center and that the house rent curve has positive gradient in certain area

the user pays system in the provision of urban infrastructure effectiveness and equity criteria a variety of means are currently used throughout the world to finance urban infrastructure in new areas and many countries have attempted to apply alternative and innovative methods to address this issue since 1985 iran has employed a direct user pays system to finance urban infrastructure in new areas questions surrounding effectiveness and equity in the user pays system result in some conflicting issues this paper examines the implications of the user pays system in terms of effectiveness and equity considerations using the experience of iran the primary foci are first to expand the discussion on financial aspects of infrastructure provision and secondly to understand and explain the implications of the user pays system for infrastructure provision based on an empirical analysis