Zoning and the Economic Geography of Cities
Published By: NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH on eSS | Published Date: September , 2016Comprehensive zoning is ubiquitous in U.S. cities, yet surprisingly little is known about its long-run impacts. This paper provides the first attempt to measure the causal effect of land use regulation over the long term. The results indicate that zoning has had a broader and more significant impact on the spatial distribution of economic activity than was previously believed. In particular, zoning may be more important than either geography or transportation networks – the workhorses of urban economic geography models – in explaining where commercial and industrial activity are located. [Working Paper 22658]
Author(s): Allison Shertzer, Tate Twinam, Randall Walsh | Posted on: Sep 19, 2016 | Views()