A view on optimal urban growth controls

Sasaki (1998) generalizes the urban-growth-control model developed by Brueckner and Lai (1996) (B-L, hereafter) and concludes that the optimal urban-growth control is less (more) stringent than the B-L model when an agglomeration effect (public-good-provision effect) is considered. However, this paper here proves that the optimal urban-growth control may or may not be more stringent than the B-L model when the agglomeration effect or (and) the public-good-provision effect is (are) considered. This result sharply differs from that of Sasaki's model. The intuition behind it is that the increase in commuting costs for landowners due to renter-immigration is overlooked in Sasaki's model.