The Chinese government has been using annual quotas to control the amount of farm-land that can be converted for urban uses in cities. Using a sample of more than 1.5 million land-lease transactions during 2007-2016, we document facts on land conversion for urban development in China. We present...

Congestion is a large problem in metropolitan areas. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical framework that can analyze whether congestion on commuting affects residential and workplace choice in metropolitan areas. First, we develop a quantitative urban model with congestion, to...

In this paper we analyze the role played by Market access to explain income disparities among Japanese Prefectures for different periods of time. The results of the estimations suggest that 1) Market access plays an important role in the explanation of income disparities in Japan, 2) the effect...

Delhi became an exemplary city by instituting radical environmental interventions to improve air quality between 2000 and 2002. This included introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) and closure of polluting industries. However, areas outside Delhi (but adjacent to Delhi's border) did not...

In mid-May, Russia's authorities created a new bureaucratic structure – the North Caucasus Development Ministry. The move came as no surprise: whenever a centralized system of governance is unable to resolve one or other issue, it resorts to creating a new administrative body vested with the...

We investigate whether residential development patterns from a rapidly growing exurban area are consistent with the urban economic model's predictions of leapfrog and infill development. Using historical data on subdivision development from 1960-2005 in the Baltimore, Maryland region, we develop...

Urban areas possess complex spatial configurations. These patterns are produced by cumulative changes in land use and land cover as human and natural environments are influenced by markets forces, policy, and changes in the natural landscape. To understand the mechanisms underlying these complex...

Variation in regulatory costs over time and across different types of investment projects creates risk for developers who hold land. These so-called implicit costs, which arise as a result of regulatory delay in the land development process, are hypothesized to be potentially large, but...

Recent evidence reveals that transportation's improvements within metropolitan areas have a clear effect on population and job decentralization processes. Yet, very little has been said on how these improvements affect the spatial organization of the economic activity in the suburbs. This paper...

We develop a simple partial-equilibrium model of endogenous city structure formation. No production externalities are at work, the only two forces shaping the spatial configurations of the city being love for variety (on the consumer side) and seeking for a better access to the market (on the...