Showing papers on "Metropolitan area published in 1991"

Productivity Gains From Geographic Concentration of human Capital: Evidence From the Cities

Abstract: Based on recent theoretical developments I argue that the average level of human capital is a local public good. Cities with higher average levels of human capital should therefore have higher wages and higher land rents. After conditioning on the characteristics of individual workers and dwellings, this prediction is supported by data for Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in the United States, where the SMSA average levels of formal education and work experience are used as proxies for the average level of human capital. I evaluate the alternative explanations of omitted SMSA variables and self-selection. I conclude by computing an estimate of the effect of an additional year of average education on total factor productivity.

First Nature, Second Nature, and Metropolitan Location

Abstract: This paper develops models of spatial equilibrium in which a central metropolis emerges to supply manufactured goods to an agricultural hinterland. The location of the metropolis is not fully determined by the location of resources: as long as it is not too far from the geographical center of the region, the concentration of economic mass at the metropolis makes it the optimal location for manufacturing firms, and is thus self-justifying. The approach in this paper therefore helps explain the role of historical accident and self-fulfilling expectations in metropolitan location.

The Restless Urban Landscape: Economic and Sociocultural Change and the Transformation of Metropolitan Washington, DC

Abstract: This study addresses recent changes in the built environment of U.S. metropolitan areas. The confluence of recent economic and sociocultural change has led to the emergence of a number of distinctive new urban settings. This process is interpreted as part of a broader, epochal change in the dynamics of contemporary capitalism. The particular implications of this transformation for the supply and demand of elements of the built environment involve changes in the organization and product mix of developers and construction companies, in the roles and professional orientations of architects and planners, and in commodity aesthetics and patterns of consumption among a “new bourgeoisie.” The imprint of these changes on the built environment is illustrated with reference to the example of the Washington metropolitan area. Among the new settings and landscape elements identified here are private master-planned communities, high-tech corridors, mixed-use developments, “festival” settings, gentrified neigh...

The Extended Metropolis: Settlement Transition in Asia

Abstract: Asian urbanization is entering a new phase that differs significantly from the patterns of city growth experienced in other developing countries and in the developed world. According to a recent hypothesis, zones of intensive economic interaction between rural and urban activities are emerging. The zones appear to be a new form of socioeconomic organization that is neither rural nor urban, but preserves essential ingredients of each. The landscapes in these extended metropolitan zones have changed little over decades. Most people live in villages, and almost all of the land is under cultivation. However, most income now comes from non-agricultural sources. Village and small-town industries provide employment for some family members, who help out in the fields only at planting or harvesting time. Others commute to jobs in the central cities. Still others live in the cities and their satellites, remitting portions of their salaries to the family. This study elaborates on this hypothesis through studies of urban areas in China, India, Indonesia and Japan. Contributors offer different perspectives from a variety of disciplines including geography, regional planning, sociology, economics and public administration. All seek to determine how rapidly, under what circumstances, and on what scale the extended metropolis is emerging.

Air passenger linkages and employment growth in u.s. metropolitan areas

Abstract: The article analyzes the relationship between the structure of airline network and employment growth in 104 metropolitan areas in the United States. Structural changes that accompanied the expansion of the airline system between 1950 and 1980 are documented using network methodology, and the effects of these changes in the airline network on metropolitan employment growth rate, focusing on employment in manufacturing and producer servicises, are assessed using regression analysis and nonrecursive models. Results show that position in the airline network has pervasive effects on metropolitan employment growth and that changes in the network position is a cause rather than a consequence of this employment growth. The article concludes that the reorganization of the airline network has been a critical factor transforming and integrating the spatial economy of the U.S.

Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities

Abstract: Based on recent theoretical developments I argue that the average level of human capital is a local public good. Cities with higher average levels of human capital should therefore have higher wages and higher land rents. After conditioning on the characteristics of individual workers and dwellings, this prediction is supported by data for Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in the United States, where the SMSA average levels of formal education and work experience are used as proxies for the average level of human capital. I evaluate the alternative explanations of omitted SMSA variables and self-selection. I conclude by computing an estimate of the effect of an additional year of average education on total factor productivity.

Corporate Headquarters Relocation and Changes in Metropolitan Corporate Dominance, 1980–1987

Abstract: During the last 30 years, U.S. metropolitan economies have experienced tremendous restructuring, and the locations of corporate headquarters have increasingly exhibited spatial shifts, both deconcentrating and dispersing. Theoretical explanations have suggested that the United States is entering the third of four stages, in which we are now witnessing the drive to regional maturity with no dominant regional center. Changes in the distribution of metropolitan corporate dominance between 1980 and 1987 are examined and related to two sets of explanatory frameworks, one spatial and the other structural. Changes in metropolitan corporate dominance were strongly related to spatial shifts in headquarters and asset location, especially shifts due to merger and acquisition activity. Changes in dominance were less strongly related to structural factors reflecting the degree of transition to the emerging service-based economy, even though population and location relative to New York were important. Finally, the effe...

The European City: A Western Perspective

Abstract: The role of history, nation and ideology the European tradition of urban planning socio-spacial structures the city economy - planning for work transport - planning for movement planning for living - social determinants of policies conservation - the city of history the city of leisure international and national context of planning metropolitan planning reconsidered planning for non-primate urban centres new towns of the 20th century the future - conclusions.

Housing markets and housing institutions : an international comparison

Abstract: 1 Housing Markets and Housing Institutions in a Comparative Context.- Housing Is Peculiar.- Housing Policies Are Special.- The Rationale of this Book.- Metropolitan Markets in National Economies.- A Taxonomy of Housing Policies.- Conclusion.- 2 The Swedish Housing Market: Development and Institutional Setting Alex Anas.- The State, the Counties, and the Municipalities.- Housing Policy.- The Planning System.- Land Use and the Ownership, Supply, and Pricing of Land.- The Housing Stock, Housing Production, and the Building Sector.- Financing of New Construction and Modernization.- Pricing, Rent Control, Rent Pooling, and Rent Negotiations.- The Public Queue: The Case of Greater Stockholm.- Swapping, Black Markets, Mobility, and Household Formation.- Housing Allowances.- Housing and Income Tax.- Conclusions.- 3 The Finnish Housing Market: Structure, Institutions, and Policy Issues.- Historical Background.- Urban Land.- Administration of Housing and Urban Planning.- Housing Production.- Development of the Dwelling Stock and Housing Finance.- Pricing of Housing.- Obtaining Shelter in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.- Mobility, Household Formation, and the Housing Market.- Housing Allowances.- Housing and the Income and Wealth Taxes.- Conclusions.- 4 The Functioning of the Housing Market in Amsterdam.- An Institutional-Economic Framework.- The City of Amsterdam.- The Development of the Housing System.- Population, Housing, and Mobility in Amsterdam.- The Planning System.- Pricing and Financing.- The Allocation of Households to Dwellings.- The Black Market: Squatting.- Conclusions.- 5 Housing in San Francisco: Shelter in the Market Economy.- The San Francisco Bay Area.- Federal and State Housing Policy.- Regionalism and Localism in Bay Area Land Use and Development 195 Summary and Conclusions.- 6 Analysis of the Housing Sector, The Housing Market, and Housing Policy in the Budapest Metropolitan Area.- The Budapest Metropolitan Area in the Settlement System of Hungary and Central Europe.- Development of the Housing Sector in Budapest.- Housing Quality and the Evolution of Financing.- Conclusion.- 7 The Vienna Housing Market: Structure, Problems, and Policies.- The Structure of the Housing Market in Metropolitan Vienna.- The Governmental Role in the Housing Market.- Conclusion: Major Impacts of Housing Policies.- 8 Glasgow: From Mean City to Miles Better.- The Message and the Medium.- Time's Arrow.- New Pluralism.- Remaking Council Housing.- Conclusion.

The Location and Growth of Business and Professional Services in American Metropolitan Areas, 1976–1986

Abstract: The economic base of American metropolitan areas relies increasingly on business and professional services. We explore the causes for fast growth of these sectors in metropolitan areas for 1976–86. Business and professional services produce new types of inputs to a large number of sectors. They encompass far more than externalization of activities once produced internally by manufacturers. We emphasize localization of business and professional services in selected metropolitan areas driven by the demand for skilled labor and information. Using employment data for SMSAs, we present empirical evidence verifying the concentration of business and professional services in the largest metropolitan areas and a temporal lag in their market penetration of smaller metropolitan areas. We introduce a new measure called a growth quotient to show that these services are growing rapidly in selected regional metropolitan areas. SMSAs in the industrial belt, especially in their central counties, rely on business ...

Insurance Redlining, Agency Location, and the Process of Urban Disinvestment:

Abstract: Insurance redlining exacerbates economic decline and impedes revitalization of urban neighborhoods throughout the United States. One significant barrier to the availability of insurance is the movement of sales representatives from inner-city to suburban locations. In examining the changing pattern of insurance agency locations within the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the authors find that racial composition of neighborhood is associated with agency location even after the effects of family income, condition of housing, and number of dwellings are controlled. Policy recommendations are offered to mitigate the practice and effects of insurance redlining and to stimulate reinvestment in urban communities.

Homicide in urban Canada: Testing the impact of economic inequality and social disorganization*

Abstract: Homicide in Canada is regionally distributed, rising from east to west. This study demonstrates a reduction in the regional effect through a convergence in homicide rates between eastern, central, and western Canada in Census Metropolitan Areas with higher levels of inequality and social disorganization. The implications of the findings for research on homicide rates are discussed.

Metropolitan Spatial Structure and its Determinants: A Case-study of Tokyo

Abstract: In this paper, to describe accurately the spatial structure of the Tokyo metropolitan area, the cubic-spline density function approach is applied and modified. It is shown that, during the 1975-85 ...

Urban growth coalitions and urban development policy: postwar growth and the politics of annexation in metropolitan columbus

Abstract: The "political economy of place" has emerged as an important theme in urban research in recent years. Within this theme, scholars have highlighted the role of so-called urban growth coalitions in the creation of conditions favorable for urban economic development. Among their activities, growth coalitions may be interested in jurisdictional organization and, in particular, municipal annexation. This paper examines the conditions that have facilitated annexation as a postwar growth policy in metropolitan Columbus, Ohio, and the role of urban growth coalitions in shaping the policy. The policy has been effective to the extent that annexation to Columbus for municipal purposes has not included decisions on the transfer of school district territory.

The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography Recycling Urban Systems and Metropolitan Areas: A Geographical Agenda for the 1990s and beyond

Abstract: As we enter the post-recession 1990s, individual metropolitan areas and entire urban systems face daunting problems in adapting to continued global economic restructuring, ethnocultural changes, de...

The federal role in urban mass transportation

Abstract: This book presents a comprehensive survey and analysis of federal policies and programs for urban mass transit. The author shows how mass transportation was a principal force in the evolution of the nation's cities from the 1880s and how, by 1900, it was one of America's major industries. The industry's decline, beginning in the 1920s, is then examined. The author then focuses on how cities developed in relationship to transportation, particularly mass transportation, and looks at the first steps in the evolution of a federal transit policy, which began in the late 1950s with the growing concern over the problems of urban transportation and traffic congestion. The complex way in which that policy grew in subsequent decades is a major focus of this book. The author also notes how other well-intentioned and popular federal programs helped to thwart the effectiveness of federal mass transportation policy. He concludes with suggestions for how urban mass transportation could be a useful tool in improving circulation in urban and metropolitan areas and, in general, create a more appealing urban environment. The text is divided into the following 14 chapters: (1) Federal Mass Transportation Policy: Transit in Transition; (2) Urban Mass Transit in the Mid-1980s; (3) The Environment of Transit Policy: Cities in an Age of Change; (4) The Rise and Fall of Mass Transit; (5) The Advent of Federal Transit Policy; (6) A Program Develops: The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 and the 1966 Amendments; (7) Major Growth in the Mass Transit Program: The Acts of 1970 and 1973; (8) The National Mass Transportation Assistance Act of 1974; (9) The Surface Transportation Act of 1978; (10) A Troubled Coalition: The Transit Act That Never Was; (11) Federal Mass Transit Policy in the Age of Reagan, 1981-1982; (12) The Urban Mass Transportation Act at 20; (13) The Federal Mass Transit Programs, 1984-1987; and (14) The Once and Future Program of Federal Mass Transit Policy.

Office location - city or suburbs? travel impacts arising from office relocation from city to suburbs

Abstract: Suburban offices constitute a growing proportion of the metropolitan office stock in Melbourne. The relocation of around 1700 Coles Myer employees from the Central Business District to Tooronga, 8.5 km south east from the GPO, is an example of office decentralisation. A study of the resultant impacts arising from the relocation has been conducted utilising a ‘before-the-move’ and ‘after-the-move’ survey of Coles Myer employees. Both surveys generated response rates in excess of 60%. Office relocation can have various short and long term impacts on employees and will influence decisions relating to residential location, car ownership and the resultant travel and activity patterns. It is not until these impacts are quantified that planners can gain acceptance for strategies designed to minimise the negative impacts associated with dispersed employment opportunities.

Red-light running: accidents and surveillance cameras

Abstract: Birmingham, with a population of about one million, is the largest of the seven metropolitan districts which comprise the county known as the West Midlands. Together these districts form one of the largest conurbations in Great Britain outside London. Birmingham is the largest metropolitan highway authority in the UK. In summer 1988 the Automobile Association Foundation for Road Safety Research and Birmingham City Council, with some assistance from the University of Birmingham, established a programme of traffic safety research based in the City Engineer's Department. This was the first time a local highway authority in the UK had been awarded private sector funds to pay for a research worker to be situated in the workplace and to assist with their traffic safety programme. The research has been designed to concentrate on road accidents in urban areas and to be conducted so as to be of potential benefit not only to Birmingham but also to other local authorities in the UK. The emphasis has been on doing action-based research with direct applications for practitioners. In 1989 the first results from this research (a demographic and hierarchic review of accidents in the West Midlands districts) were published. That review was used in providing pointers for the next project (a study of accidents to young pedestrians, published in 1990) and for the present study. As the title of this report suggests, 'Red-light running: accidents and surveillance cameras' is focused on two main topics. The first is descriptive and concerns what urban accident data reveal about red-light running accidents at junctions; the second examines the potential benefits of automatic surveillance cameras used to enforce compliance with the red traffic light signal instructing drivers to stop at these junctions.

First Nature, Second Nature, and Metropolitan Location

Abstract: This paper develops models of spatial equilibrium in which a central metropolis emerges to supply manufactured goods to an agricultural hinterland. The location of the metropolis is not fully determined by the location of resources: as long as it is not too far from the geographical center of the region, the concentration of economic mass at the metropolis makes it the optimal location for manufacturing firms, and is thus self-justifying. The approach in this paper therefore helps explain the role of historical accident and self-fulfilling expectations in metropolitan location.

Constitutional reform and the future of the Republic of China

Abstract: This is a book about the reality of place in America, the events and influences that led to the America we recognize today. It is a book about the growth of American cities and their suburbs during the twentieth century, about institutions and metropolitan governance, about real estate development and finance, about housing and the lack of it, about the emergence and perhaps the eventual debilitation of cities and suburbs alike. Incorporating the thinking of visionary city planners and land use economists, the author presents a lucid primer on the economics of land, its development and usage, and on how things actually get done in the real estate industry.