Intrametropolitan variation of urban structure and housing price: the case of Chongqing, China

Abstract

The debate on urban spatial structure and economic efficiency has largely ignored intrametropolitan variation of urban structure. Chongqing, a mountainous metropolis in Southwestern China, is a good case for studying the economic effects of intrametropolitan difference in urban structure. Population density and center density of each urban district are calculated to capture the two dimensions of urban structure: centralization–dispersion and monocentric–polycentric. Based on average housing price data for micro-districts sampled through multistage stratified sampling, hedonic analysis is conducted that includes the two urban structure variables. Empirical results show that population density is negatively associated with housing price while center density is positively associated with housing price. This finding provides indirect support to the view that dispersion and polycentricity are efficiency enhancing.