184 research outputs found
Economic evaluation of urban and spatial policies
Full text linkRouwendal, J. [Promotor]Verhoef, E.T. [Promotor
Location Choices of highly Educated Foreign Workers: the Importance of Urban Amenities
Full text linkIn the globalized economy the presence of migrants is essential for urban and regional growth, and it is therefore important to know what makes a city an attractive place for highly skilled migrants. This paper aims to shed light on this issue by considering the location choice of highly-educated foreign workers, and if and how their valuation of urban amenities differs from domestic workers. To do so, we apply a residential location-choice model to estimate the attractiveness of residential locations in the Dutch Randstad for low and high-skilled, domestic and foreign workers, and calculate and compare their willingness to pay for each of these amenities
The Value of Proximity to Water in Residential Areas
Full text linkProximity to water is appreciated by households. Hedonic analyses that try to measure the value of this amenity are potentially biased by omitted variables as locations close to the water may be selected by households with higher incomes who construct more luxury houses. Since it is difficult to observe all relevant characteristics, the coefficient for proximity to water may be biased upwards. We circumvent this problem by exploiting a specific characteristic of the Dutch system of planned residential development: often a number of identical houses are constructed close to each other. By comparing the values of such identical houses, we can measure the effect of proximity to water under almost ideal circumstances. The results show a significant impact of this amenity, but of a smaller magnitude than was suggested by many earlier studies, thereby confirming the conjectured presence of omitted variable bias
The effects of highway development on housing prices
Full text linkThe purpose of this research is to estimate the effects of highway development projects on the price of housing. Transportation development projects, highways in particular, improve a certain area’s accessibility but also increase its levels of exposure to traffic intensity and noise pollution. These externalities are evaluated by homeowners and residents and are reflected in the price of housing. In this paper, we use several repeat sales model specifications, including difference-in-differences estimators, and control for neighborhood effects to examine housing price trends in the municipalities around two newly developed highways in the Netherlands. The results of the research demonstrate that changes in accessibility result in a significant positive effect on the price of housing in nearby municipalities, but that increased noise pollution and traffic intensity levels result in a decrease in prices. The findings also confirm that combining the total effects of all externalities, the effect of highway development on the price of housing is generally positive, and this effect is salient even before the project is completed due to public anticipation effects
Spatial Planning and Segmentation of the Land Market
Full text linkIn this paper we provide evidence of segmentation of the Dutch land markets by spatial planning into three compartments referring to agricultural, industrial and residential use. We analyze transactions of ready-to-be developed land provided by the Dutch Land Register (Kadaster) and find that residential land is much more expensive than industrial land. We also compare the prices observed in these transactions with prices for agricultural land in the vicinity and find that agricultural land is much cheaper than residential and industrial land
Discrete choice models for commuting interactions
Full text linkAn emerging quantitative spatial economics literature models commuting interactions by a gravity equation that is mathematically equivalent to a multinomial logit model. This model is widely viewed as restrictive because of the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) property that links substitution behavior in response to changes in the attractiveness of choice alternatives to choice probabilities in a mechanistic way. This is relevant for counterfactual analysis. In this paper we examine the appropriateness of the commuting model from a theoretical as well as an empirical point of view. We show that conventional specification tests of the multinomial logit model are of limited use when alternative specific constants are used, as is common in the recent literature, and offer no information with respect to the validity of IIA. In articular, we show that maximum likelihood estimation of relevant nested logit model is impossible because the crucial parameters are not identified. We discuss cross-nested and mixed logit as alternatives. We argue that a comparison between predicted and actual changes in commuting flows in response to a change in the attractiveness of choice alternatives provides a more informative test for the validity of the multinomial logit model for commuting interaction and report the results of such a test – as well as others – for data referring to Copenhagen
Reforming state enterprises in socialist economies : guidelines for leasing them to entrepreneurs
Full text linkSince the state has proven to be incompetent in its management of state owned enterprises a new structure must be found that takes into account the incompetence of the state but ensures that the state's economic interests are preserved the best way possible. Two of the most difficult tasks in this process are how to exercise ownership rights to assets and simultaneously delegate decision making to the management of the firm. This paper finds that the solution of these problems is to lease state owned enterprises to entrepreneurs through contracts derived from the principal-agent literature where the state is the principal and the agent is the lessee. Since the state needs to delegate responsibility to the management of state owned enterprises, the process of reform becomes in reality a principal-agent problem. To facilitate the reform process it is necessary to establish a credit market because the lessee may have investment plans that need to be financed. So far no country has yet tried to implement lease schemes based on principal-agent contracts. Future work needs to build a bridge between theory and reality to see whether they both can benefit from the interaction.Health Economics&Finance,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies
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Miscellaneous Articles Written in U.S. Army Publications, 1971-1976
Full text linkWhile in US Army Basic and Advanced Infantry Training in Fall of 1970, Dale Croes began to explore his interest in Northwest Coast Anthropology. He was assigned to the 122nd Public Information Detachment and wrote newsletter articles for the Army newspaper reflecting history topics, and some archaeological investigations, from 1970 until Honorably Discharged in 1976. Samples of these articles are included here along with original photographs by the author
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