Jingjing Chen , Wei Chen , Ernest Liu , Jie Luo , Zheng Song
{"title":"The economic cost of locking down like China: Evidence from city-to-city truck flows","authors":"Jingjing Chen , Wei Chen , Ernest Liu , Jie Luo , Zheng Song","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103729","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103729","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Containing the COVID-19 pandemic by non-pharmacological interventions is costly. Using high-frequency, city-to-city truck flow data, this paper estimates the economic cost of lockdown in China, a stringent yet effective policy prior to the Omicron surge. By comparing the truck flow change in the cities with and without lockdown, we find that a one-month full-scale lockdown causally reduces the truck flows connected to the locked down city in the month by 54%, implying a decline of the city’s real income with the same proportion in a gravity model of city-to-city trade. We also structurally estimate the cost of lockdown in the gravity model, where the effects of lockdown can spill over to other cities through trade linkages. Imposing full-scale lockdown on the four largest cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) for one month would reduce the real national GDP by 8.7%, of which 8.5% is contributed by the spillover effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"145 ","pages":"Article 103729"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142744484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who bears the burden of real estate transfer taxes? Evidence from the German housing market","authors":"Mathias Dolls , Clemens Fuest , Carla Krolage , Florian Neumeier","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103717","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103717","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the effects of real estate transfer taxes (RETT) on property prices using a rich micro dataset of roughly 17 million German properties for the period from 2005 to 2019. Our empirical analysis exploits variation in RETT rate hikes across German states and over time. Our monthly event study estimates indicate a price response that strongly exceeds the change in the tax burden for single transactions. Twelve months after a reform, a one percentage point increase in the tax rate reduces property prices by on average 3%. Price effects are larger for apartments (−4%) than for single-family houses (−2%). Exploring potential mechanisms, we provide evidence that different holding periods are the main driver of the differential price effect between property types.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"145 ","pages":"Article 103717"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142703106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local favoritism in China's public procurement: Information frictions or incentive distortion?","authors":"Wei TANG , Yuan WANG , Jiameng WU","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103716","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103716","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aims to disentangle the roles of information frictions and career incentives of local officials in the allocation of government contracts. Drawing on a unique dataset including both winning and losing bidders of public procurement auctions in China, we document a strong local bias in the contract allocation. These patterns are hardly reconciled with explanations rooted in information frictions or corruption. Instead, we highlight the role of local leaders’ career incentives, presenting evidence that local favoritism is more pronounced in localities with more incentivized mayors. Our findings prompt a reconsideration of the effectiveness of bureaucratic discretion in allocating public resources. (JEL H57, H77, H72, D73, R51)</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"145 ","pages":"Article 103716"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142656367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Commuting, gender and children","authors":"Malte Borghorst , Ismir Mulalic , Jos van Ommeren","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We demonstrate that women with children are much more likely to leave their job when they have a long commute, which is not true for men. Interpreting these results through the lens of a dynamic search model, we demonstrate that commuting costs increase substantially for women after they have children. For women with children, a 12 kilometer increase in commuting distance induces costs equivalent to about 20% of their wage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103709"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142578667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"China’s commuting-based metropolitan areas","authors":"Ting Chen , Yizhen Gu , Ben Zou","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103715","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103715","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using commuting flows derived from cellphone location data at fine geographical levels, this paper presents the first delineation of China’s commuting-based metropolitan areas (MAs). The size distribution of those MAs follows a power law, with larger MAs hosting more skilled workers, more productive firms, and offering higher wage premiums. China’s commuting-based MAs exhibit a few notable features compared to several other large countries. First, commutes are short in both time and distance and rarely cross administrative boundaries. Second, China’s MAs are small relative to the size of the country, with MA sizes highly correlated with the administrative hierarchy. We discuss existing policies that may have contributed to these characteristics. We demonstrate that commuting-based MAs differ substantively from other definitions of Chinese cities. The commuting-based MAs provide a valuable tool for researchers who need to define Chinese cities as local labor markets but are limited by the availability of official delineations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103715"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142662721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"JUE 2007–2023: Rising impact","authors":"Stuart S. Rosenthal , William C. Strange","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103713","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103713","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103713"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142662722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urban and spatial economics after 50 years","authors":"J. Vernon Henderson , Jacques-François Thisse","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103711","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103711","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103711"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142587211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The city-wide effects of tolling downtown drivers: Evidence from London’s congestion charge","authors":"Ian Herzog","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103714","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103714","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies effects of London’s Congestion Charge on regional traffic, commuting, and economic activity’s spatial distribution. London began tolling drivers into its central business district in 2003 and I find that the policy reduced traffic on untolled roads leading downtown. I build this effect into a quantitative model with heterogeneous skills, endogenous mode choice, and traffic externalities to examine effects on commuters. Simulations suggest that London’s Congestion Charge incentivizes driving to untolled workplaces and gives the region’s commuters positive net benefits. I also find that benefits are progressive because the policy reduces traffic where low-skill commuters live and work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103714"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Journal of Urban Economics, 1991–2007","authors":"Jan K. Brueckner","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103712","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103712","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103712"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142528627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forward to the Special Issue “Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Journal of Urban Economics”","authors":"Nathaniel Baum-Snow , Kristian Behrens","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103710","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2024.103710","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"144 ","pages":"Article 103710"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142528626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}