This paper employs panel-data estimation approaches to test hypotheses of the monocentric urban model. We apply both within- and between- groups estimation approaches to urbanized area data for the 1990-2010 period. From a fixed-effects (within-groups) model, we find that a 1-percent increase in...

Burchfield, et al., “Causes of Sprawl: A Portrait from Space,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, CXXI (2006), 587–633, show that variables chosen from the monocentric model and its generalizations as well as those capturing geographical and political characteristics of urban areas are...

Some urban policies are designed to reduce auto and increase transit usage. Evidence is mixed because most empirical research uses ad hoc specifications. We estimate empirical models of the interaction between urban form and transit demand drawn from urban economic theory. Population density has...

This paper introduces risk into location and land-use choices of a profit-maximizing urban firm. Although risk has been introduced into the location theories of Von Thünen, Weber, and Hotelling (Asami and Isard, 1989), it has not to our knowledge been incorporated into a firm’s choice of...

The theory of the urban firm has been moribund for thirty years. We believe this is due to the perception that the theory cannot generate testable hypotheses. In fact, the theory yields unambiguous comparative static results. We find location and land use directly related to product price and...

In this paper we study an optimal contract problem under moral hazard in a principal-agent framework where contracts are implemented through random auditing. This monitoring instrument reveals the precise action taken by the agent with some nondegenerate probability r, and otherwise reveals no...

We examine the impact of assisted reproductive technology on women’s choice to pursue professional careers. We hypothesize that the availability of assisted reproductive technology increases the expected benefits of a professional degree by allowing women to delay childbearing in their 20s and...

This paper analyzes the importance of malaria prevalence, malaria ecology, and indoor residual spraying on the probability of sleeping under an insecticide-treated net (ITN) in six African countries. Using individual data on ITN usage combined with the malaria prevalence and ecology data for the...