The share of metropolitan residents living in central cities declined dramatically from 1950 to 2000. We argue that cities would have lost even further ground if not for demographic trends such as renewed immigration, delayed childbearing, and a decline in the share of households headed by...

Nathaniel Baum-Snow has investigated the impact of the introduction of the interstate highway system in the U.S. on the decline of central city populations. He finds that it is has had a significant effect on central city population decline and increased suburbanization. He suggests that had the...

Wendell Cox, Peter Gordon, and Christian Redfearn have commented on a paper of mine that gives evidence of a strong and large causal relationship between highway construction and central city population declines in the United States between 1950 and 1990. Cox, Gordon, and Redfearn are skeptical...

We analyse the multiple channels of influence that GFC-induced credit restrictions had on New Zealand’s subnational housing markets. Our model isolates dynamics caused by impacts on the supply and the demand sides of the market. These dynamics are compared to those caused by a migration shock,...

The New Zealand Regional Housing Model (NZRHM) includes estimated equations for four key housing market variables: house prices, housing supply (new dwelling consents), residential vacant land (lot) prices, and average rents. Long run (cointegration) relationships and short run (error...

Eurasian water-milfoil is an aquatic invasive plant that has moved rapidly through lakes across the United States. Along with being a hazard to local ecosystems, water-milfoil is a nuisance to those who use lakes for recreation, and its presence even lowers the value of lakefront properties....

Land development is a central topic in environmental, resource, urban and regional economics, yet our empirical knowledge of people behind land development, the developers, and the supply of urban land is limited. In response I develop a model of exurban land developers to test the spatial...

We present a modified open monocentric city model that assumes that land is available for conversion into new housing throughout the city. The model predicts that positive local income shocks (i) increase the city’s share of multi-family housing in new construction and (ii) lead to the...

Norway’s near-term macroeconomic priority is to reduce risks arising from high-household debt by tightening macroprudential standards for mortgage lending while undertaking tax reforms to gradually reduce incentives for excessive leverage. Creating a stronger institutional framework for...

As in other advanced economies, there has been a significant run-up of household debt in Sweden during the last two decades accompanied by rising housing prices, prompting concerns about sustainability and the implications for financial stability. The rise in household debt and the banking...