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- Info
The economics of urban amenities: Studies in urban economics
| Author: |
Diamond, Douglas B., Jr.; Tolley, George S. |
| Date: |
1982 |
| Periodical: |
New York, NY: Academic Press, Inc. |
| Abstract: |
This book advances the analysis of amenities by providing conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations for such analysis. It also applies amenity concepts to a wide variety of specific phenomena. These phenomena are associated with access to places for buying and selling outputs and inputs, as well as with environmental and topographic features, collectively provided goods, and people themselves in their roles as neighbors. The topics range from benefit-cost analysis to gentrification, from the effect of climate on regional migration to the effect of racial prejudice on urban housing markets. Part I deals with amenities most generally. Diamond and Tolley (Chapter 1) develop a framework within which to place the heretofore disparate parts of amenity analysis. Extensions within the framework are also developed. Based on a rigorous definition of amenities, the chapter examines approaches to modeling effects of amenities on urban form and other phenomena under static and dynamic conditions, giving attention also to the effects of amenities in a regional context. Harris, Tolley, and Harrell (Chapter 2) provide a model of the effects of amenities on the residence site choice. It demonstrates the great influence on land values of amenities other than distance to the central business district, indicating that models of urban form must move beyond those in which the latter variable is the single or dominant explanatory variable. In Part II on methods of amenity market analysis, Linneman (Chapter 3) reviews a wide range of issues in the hedonic demand estimation literature as it bears on estimating the determinants of residential location. Blomquist and Worley (Chapter 4) examine a specific controversy in the hedonic literature, the degree of endogeneity in the levels of dwelling characteristics and amenities. They specify and illustrate a hedonic demand and supply framework in which econometric tests for simultaneity can be made. Part III is concerned with the empirical analysis of urban amenity markets. Pollard (Chapter 5) provides a unique analysis of the joint effects on building heights of access to downtown and view amenities. Vaughan and Huckins (Chapter 6) develop the benefit-cost analysis for evaluating measures to control the disamenity, urban expressway noise. Grimes (Chapter 7) estimates rent gradients connected with -recreational amenities near a large urban center. In doing so, he models and estimates the effects of competition for recreational land by people from towns and cities outside the dominant urban center. Smith (Chapter 8) investigates racial composition as a neighborhood amenity, estimating how racial preferences effect house prices and testing whether it is preferences or discrimination that causes segregation. Part IV turns to regional amenity markets. Haurin (Chapter 9) develops a rigorous model of how regional amenities jointly affect regional wage rate differentials and city size. Graves and Regulska (Chapter 10) estimate the effects on migration of climate, access to recreational opportunities, and other amenities, showing how the effects depend on life-cycle variables and race. |
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