Urban sprawl and productivity: Evidence from US metropolitan areas

Abstract

This paper draws on urban agglomeration theories to empirically investigate the relationship between the economic performance of US metropolitan areas and their respective amounts of sprawl. To measure urban sprawl, we construct a distinctive measure that captures the distribution of population density and land-use within metropolitan areas. Using both ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IVs) approaches, we find that higher levels of urban sprawl are negatively associated with average labour productivity. This pattern holds even within given industries or within given occupational classifications.JEL classification: R11, R12, R14

Accessibility in Cities: Transport and Urban Form

“…Although the relationship between different urban accessibility pathways and key transport externalities is complex, the negative impacts and high socio-economic costs of urban accessibility pathways that are based on sprawling, car-oriented cities are widely recognised (Newman and Kenworthy 1989;Black 1996;Litman 1999;Prud'homme and Lee 1999;Gilbert, Irwin et al 2002;Bull, Armstrong et al 2004;Bradbury, Tomlinson et al 2007;Dora 2007;Webster, Bertaud et al 2010;Fallah, Partridge et al 2011;Litman 2011;Litman 2014b). Sprawling cities require rapid and more individualised modes of transport to maintain or reduce journey times, and statistical evidence suggests a clear correlation between vehicle mileage driven and accident rates (Litman 2012); for example, traffic and pedestrian fatalities in the 101 largest metro regions in the United States are directly related to the level of urban sprawl (Thompson 2013).…”

City Size, Population Concentration and Productivity: Evidence from China

“…Brülhart and Sbergami (2009) introduced a number of potential variables that are expected to influence city economic growth and productivity, including agglomeration effect, investment, human capital, research and development capability, degree of openness and degree of government participation. Because of data limitations, we draw from Doppelhofer et al (2004) and Fallah et al (2011) to select five main variables that are expected to impact city productivity. As a result, Equation (7) is expanded as follows:…”

“…Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995). Human capital is usually measured by the average educational attainment of the labor force (Fallah et al, 2011). Unfortunately, data on the education background of the urban labor force in China is not available.…”

“…However, only a few researchers (e.g. Lee and Gordon, 2007;Fallah et al, 2011) have noticed the impacts of urban spatial structure on productivity. In the former case, the growth effects of employment dispersion were found to be dependent on metropolitan size, but in the latter case, the evidence indicates that higher levels of urban sprawl are negatively associated with average labor productivity.…”

“…Fallah et al (2011), we use an aggregate production function to investigate the impact of city size and population concentration on city productivity in China. Assuming perfect competition and constant return to scale, the Cobb-Douglas production function can be specified as follows:,…”