{"title":"The size and Census coverage of the U.S. homeless population","authors":"Bruce D. Meyer , Angela Wyse , Kevin Corinth","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2023.103559","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Fundamental questions about the size and characteristics of the homeless population are unresolved because it is unclear whether existing data are sufficiently complete and reliable. We examine these questions and the coverage of new microdata sources that are designed to be nationally representative. We compare two restricted data sources largely unused to study homelessness, the 2010 Census and American Community Survey (ACS), to restricted Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data, HUD's public-use point-in-time (PIT) estimates, and the Housing Inventory Count (HIC) at the national and individual level. We also develop a new approach to estimating the size of the sheltered homeless population using linked Census and HMIS microdata. Our analyses suggest that on a given night there are about 400,000 people experiencing homelessness in shelters in the U.S. and about 200,000 people sleeping on the streets, with this latter estimate subject to greater uncertainty. More than 90 percent of those in shelters appear to be counted in the Census, although many are classified as housed or in other group quarters, due largely to ambiguity in the definition of a homeless shelter. This paper lays the foundation for pathbreaking future work with these data on the U.S. homeless population.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103559"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49870802","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":"The impact of upzoning on housing construction in Auckland","authors":"Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy , Peter C.B. Phillips","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103555","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103555","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>There is a growing debate about whether upzoning is an effective policy response to housing shortages and unaffordable housing. This paper provides empirical evidence to further inform debate by examining the various impacts of recently implemented zoning reforms on housing construction in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area<span> in New Zealand. In 2016, the city upzoned approximately three quarters of its residential land to facilitate construction of more intensive housing. We use a quasi-experimental approach to analyze the short-run impacts of the reform on construction, allowing for potential shifts in construction from non-upzoned to upzoned areas (displacement effects) that would, if unaccounted for, lead to an overestimation of treatment effects. We find strong evidence that upzoning stimulated construction. Treatment effects remain statistically significant even under implausibly large displacement effects that would necessitate more than a four-fold increase in the trend rate of construction in control areas under the counterfactual of no-upzoning. Our findings support the argument that upzoning can stimulate housing supply and suggest that further work to identify factors that mediate the efficacy of upzoning in achieving wider objectives of the policy would assist policymakers in the design of zoning reforms in the future.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103555"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47811601","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}
Charly Porcher , Hannah Rubinton , Clara Santamaría
{"title":"JUE insight: The role of establishment size in the city-size earnings premium","authors":"Charly Porcher , Hannah Rubinton , Clara Santamaría","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103556","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103556","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Both large establishments and large cities are known to offer workers an earnings premium. In this paper, we show that these two premia are closely linked by documenting a new fact: when workers move to a large city, they also move to larger establishments. We then ask how much of the city-size earnings premium can be attributed to transitions to larger and better-paying establishments. Using administrative data from Spain, we find that 38 percent of the city-size earnings premium can be explained by establishment-size composition. Most of the gains from the transition to larger establishments realize in the short-term upon moving to the large city. Establishment size explains 29 percent of the short-term gains, but only 5 percent of the medium-term gains that accrue as workers gain experience in the large city. The small contribution to the medium-term gains is due to two facts: first, within large cities workers transition to large establishments only slightly faster than in smaller cities; second, the relationship between earnings and establishment size is weaker in large cities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103556"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41421375","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}
Martín Besfamille , Diego A. Jorrat , Osmel Manzano , Bernardo F. Quiroga , Pablo Sanguinetti
{"title":"How do subnational governments react to shocks to different revenue sources? Evidence from hydrocarbon-producing provinces in Argentina","authors":"Martín Besfamille , Diego A. Jorrat , Osmel Manzano , Bernardo F. Quiroga , Pablo Sanguinetti","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2023.103558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Based on the fiscal regime that prevailed in Argentina from 1988 to 2003, we estimate the effects of changes in intergovernmental transfers and hydrocarbon royalties on provincial public consumption and debt. Whenever intergovernmental transfers increase, all provinces primarily increase public consumption and, to a lesser extent, decrease their debt. However, when hydrocarbon-producing provinces experienced an increase in royalties, they saved the entire increase. We provide evidence that the exhaustible nature of royalties may explain this saving reaction in hydrocarbon-producing provinces.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103558"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49870800","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 Insight: The impact of the school admission restriction policy on the housing market in Shanghai","authors":"Kangzhe Ding, Ryo Itoh","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2023.103568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study explores the influence of a regulation of informal school choice on the housing market in Shanghai to estimate the significance of loopholes in the school district system. The policy limited the priority for enrollment in a public elementary schools given to house owners in the school's district so that each housing property is given only one priority every five years; hence, informal acquisition of priorities through frequent resale of houses is limited. From the dataset of individual housing prices in Shanghai, we show that house price<span> within the school districts of good schools increases after the policy. In contrast, house price decreases in areas that are neighboring the school but outside its school district because they are called “babysitting communities” and provide houses to live in for households who resell their houses earlier than graduation of their children. We also implement event study analysis to estimate time-varying influences of the policy, to show that the significant price increase occurs immediately after the policy implementation and shrinks a little in the short run.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103568"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49870801","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}
Rachel M.B. Atkins , Pablo Hernández-Lagos , Cristian Jara-Figueroa , Robert Seamans
{"title":"JUE Insight: What is the impact of opportunity zones on job postings?","authors":"Rachel M.B. Atkins , Pablo Hernández-Lagos , Cristian Jara-Figueroa , Robert Seamans","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103545","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103545","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the effect of Opportunity Zones (OZs) on job postings using data comprising the near-universe of U.S. online job postings. The OZs program grants tax breaks for investment in designated distressed communities, nominated by each state’s governor based on multiple factors. We use propensity score matching to account for those factors and a difference-in-differences model over the matched sample to estimate the effect of the program. We find limited evidence of any effect of OZs on job postings on average, although we do find small positive effects in urban areas, in areas with above median Black population, and in some states.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103545"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49273940","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":"The long shadow of local decline: Birthplace economic adversity and long-term individual outcomes in the UK","authors":"Andrew McNeil , Davide Luca , Neil Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Does growing up in a high-economic adversity area matter for individual economic, cultural, and political views? Despite a significant focus upon the effect of birthplace on economic outcomes, there is less evidence on how local economic conditions at birth shape individual attitudes over the long-term. This paper links the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from English and Welsh respondents with historic localised information on unemployment, our measure of economic adversity. Our results, which control for composition effects, family background, and sorting of people across places, show that being born into a high-unemployment Local Authority has a significant, long-term impact on individuals. Birthplace matters beyond economic outcomes, as being born into a Local Authority of high unemployment makes individuals believe in more government intervention in jobs, less progressive on gender issues, and less likely to support the Conservative Party.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103571"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42935923","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 Insight: Immigrants, social transfers for education, and spatial interactions","authors":"Massimiliano Ferraresi","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2021.103423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2021.103423","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper exploits the increase in immigrants from new European member states to test for the presence of strategic interactions in the municipal allocation of social transfers targeted at education services. The results of this analysis, conducted on all Italian municipalities over the 2003–2015 period, point to the presence of spatial interactions between neighbouring municipalities and indicate that this mimicking is more pronounced in municipalities guided by mayors who can be re-elected, in electoral years compared to other years of the term, in municipalities where a higher share of low-income households live, and in municipalities characterized by low levels of social and civic capital.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103423"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49870803","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":"Cities and productivity: Evidence from 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries","authors":"Luis E. Quintero , Mark Roberts","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2023.103573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper explores the roles of agglomeration economies and human capital externalities in accounting for productivity variations across sub-national areas in 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries. We estimate positive elasticities of productivity with respect to density. While heterogeneity exists across countries, the estimated agglomeration elasticities for the region are comparable to those estimated in the literature for high-income countries. Including human capital measures reduces the estimated agglomeration elasticities for several countries in our sample. We also find that human capital externalities play a stronger role in explaining spatial productivity differentials than agglomeration economies in the region. By providing comparable estimates of the strength of agglomeration economies and human capital externalities for many non-high-income countries, the paper considerably expands knowledge on the determinants of urban productivity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103573"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49870860","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}
Catarina Branco , Dirk C. Dohse , João Pereira dos Santos , José Tavares
{"title":"Nobody’s gonna slow me down? The effects of a transportation cost shock on firm performance and behavior","authors":"Catarina Branco , Dirk C. Dohse , João Pereira dos Santos , José Tavares","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the firm-level responses to a substantial increase in transportation costs in the wake of a quasi-experiment that introduced tolls in a subset of Portuguese highways. Exploiting a unique dataset encompassing the universe of Portuguese private firms, we find that the introduction of tolls caused a substantial decrease in turnover (<span><math><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>10.2</mn></mrow></math></span>%) and productivity (<span><math><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>4.3</mn></mrow></math></span>%) in treated firms <em>vis-à-vis</em> firms in the comparison group. In response to the tolls, firms substantially cut employment-related expenses and purchases of other inputs. Labor costs were reduced by both employment cuts and a decrease in average wages. While firms did not increase inventory, there is some evidence for increased firm exit, in particular by firms in tradables sectors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 103569"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41648957","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}