Omer Ali , Nicholas Datto , Pei Yi Zhuo , Clinton Boyd Jr. , William A. Darity Jr.
{"title":"Race and home values in Durham, North Carolina: 1940–2020","authors":"Omer Ali , Nicholas Datto , Pei Yi Zhuo , Clinton Boyd Jr. , William A. Darity Jr.","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104205","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104205","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the relationship between race and home values in Durham, North Carolina using two methods to partition the city geographically: first, using the racial composition of census tracts, and second, the rating assigned to neighborhoods by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation. We find that home values are strongly associated with racial composition and neighborhood rating. Homes in Black neighborhoods are worth less than those in white neighborhoods, and homes in redlined neighborhoods are worth less than those in greenlined neighborhoods. We confirm that home values in 1940 correspond to the ranking implied by HOLC ratings, and that these patterns remain in the present. Furthermore, within the areas with the lowest home values for each partition, Black home-owners occupy the least valuable homes. Taken together, our findings add confirmatory evidence to the literature on the persistence of racial disparities in housing outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104205"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147398502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Surface parking lots in downtown areas and the role of regulatory delay in optimal dynamic land use","authors":"Sofia F. Franco , Andrew R. Waxman","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104203","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104203","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we explore the implication for urban form, urban structure and optimal land use policy of vacant land used for downtown surface parking lots in urban areas. We develop a dynamic, spatial general equilibrium urban model to show cases where vacant land can be optimal and suboptimal depending upon its temporary use, economic and regulatory conditions as well as externalities. We show in numerical simulations how the structure of the urban economy responds to different policies and consider their implications for different types of cities. These results have important implications for cities concerned about the impacts of vacant land and in particular of surface parking lots in downtown areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104203"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hot property. The amplifying effects of housing costs on regional inequality","authors":"Gabriele Cardullo , Agnese Sechi","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104189","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104189","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We develop a spatial equilibrium model with labor market frictions and non-homothetic preferences to investigate how local changes influence regional inequality. We show that these effects are significantly amplified when the housing expenditure share is large and falls with income (meaning that housing is a necessity good) and wage bargaining is decentralized. Under non-homothetic preferences, local changes induce stronger variations in real income and, in turn, on inter-regional labor mobility. Calibrated to German data, the model provides a quantitative explanation for the narrowing East–West divide in Germany over the past fifteen years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104189"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145969389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regionally regulated fees and firms’ location choices: Evidence from the Japanese Public Long-term Care Insurance Scheme","authors":"Hiroshi Aiura , Takahiro Tsukamoto","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104206","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104206","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine how regional changes in the additional rate from the basic regulated fees affect the location of home-visit care establishments under the Public Long-Term Care Insurance Scheme in Japan. Since the additional rate varies between municipalities and is revised every three years, we examine the locations of home-visit care establishments three years before and after the April 2015 revision. We adopt a double-differencing strategy, focusing on the differences in border areas of each municipality before and after three years of the revision of the regional additional rate. Our findings indicate that the regional additional rate significantly affects the location of these establishments. A 1% increase in the regional additional rate in one of two adjacent municipalities raises that municipality’s share of establishments within the pair by approximately 0.9 to 1.0%. These findings have important policy implications, i.e., adjusting regulated fees can be effective in addressing regional disparities in home-visit care services supply.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104206"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Henrik Andersson , Ina Blind , Fabian Brunåker , Matz Dahlberg , Greta Fredriksson , Jakob Granath , Che-Yuan Liang
{"title":"What is in a label? On neighborhood labeling, stigma and housing prices","authors":"Henrik Andersson , Ina Blind , Fabian Brunåker , Matz Dahlberg , Greta Fredriksson , Jakob Granath , Che-Yuan Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104191","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104191","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Place-based policies that allocate resources to specific areas inadvertently also designate these areas as needing assistance, potentially leading to the development of neighborhood stigma. The common coupling of resource allocation and area designation makes it difficult to measure the stigma effect. However, the Swedish police’s listing of “vulnerable” neighborhoods, initially introduced in 2015, lacked accompanying resources, offering a unique opportunity to examine the isolated impact of place-based policies on stigma. We study the stigma associated with unfavorable area labels through an analysis of how police listings affect housing prices — a reliable measure of location value. Employing the synthetic control method, we find that the list resulted in an average price decrease of 3.6% within one year and 6.5% within six years in the designated neighborhoods. In line with ideas of racial stigma, we also find that areas with a higher proportion of minority residents prior to classification experienced more pronounced negative effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104191"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Needed but not there: Firm location, corporate site visits, transportation, and stock price crash risk","authors":"Xiaoling Chu , Kin Lo , Desmond Tsang","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104204","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104204","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the intertwined relationship of firm location, corporate site visits, transportation, and their impact on stock price crash risk. We first document that firms located further away from financial centers are associated with higher stock price crash risk, but they also have fewer corporate site visits by institutional investors. However, stock price crash risk of these distant firms is particularly mitigated by more corporate site visits. We next utilize the rapid expansion of high-speed rail connections in China as a series of exogenous shocks in a staggered difference-in-differences research design. We find that the openings of high-speed rail stations are followed by increased site visits and reduced stock price crash risk for firms in the newly connected cities. Overall, our findings highlight that transportation infrastructure mitigates stock price crash risk by facilitating institutional site visits to geographically distant firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104204"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David M. Brasington , Daniel P. McMillen , Evan Carson
{"title":"Effect of local government taxes and spending on the redevelopment of commercial property","authors":"David M. Brasington , Daniel P. McMillen , Evan Carson","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104202","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104202","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We provide the first causal evidence of the effect of taxation and spending on the redevelopment of commercial property. We analyze a unique dataset of local government property tax levies to renew current expense funding for general operating purposes. Our regression discontinuity approach finds cities that vote to renew taxes and spending have more redevelopment of commercial property than cities that cut balanced-budget funding by an average of 21 %. Demolition doubles, and new construction increases an average of 48 %. The results hold for cities in urban areas, service sector-oriented cities, and cities with above-median population growth. We even find that renewing funding for local government services spurs more commercial redevelopment in cities with declining populations, but only in a sample that allows outliers. Firms seem to value local government spending more than cutting taxes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 104202"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urban economics issues in health economics: Introduction to the special issue of Regional Science and Urban Economics","authors":"Daniel McMillen (Guest Editor)","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104184","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104184","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 104184"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145926257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When taxi drivers meet dynamic pricing: A lesson from Singapore’s JustGrab program","authors":"Shih-Fen Cheng , Wen-Tai Hsu , Jing Li","doi":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104186","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2025.104186","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies how dynamic pricing influences taxi drivers’ behaviors using a unique event, the inception of the JustGrab program in Singapore in 2017, which introduced dynamic pricing to some, but not all, taxi drivers. This is the first time in history that traditional taxi drivers have access to dynamic pricing. Using data covering the universe of taxi trips one month before and after the inception of JustGrab, we find that there is immediate spatial reallocation that directs more taxi drivers to the previously less-served areas, that there is also a temporal reallocation that directs more taxi drivers to rush hours, as well as lunch hours, and that there is an overall increase in labor supply. Our results suggest that taxi drivers benefit from access to dynamic pricing, at least during our study period. As the proliferation of app-based ride-hailing technology has encountered various degrees of opposition from the taxi industry in cities across the globe, such a lesson from JustGrab is worth attention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48196,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science and Urban Economics","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 104186"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145791027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}