Importance Of Amenities Research Articles

Explaining spatial patterns of foreign employment in Germany

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the main determinants of the representation of foreign employees across German regions. Since migration determinants are not necessarily the same for workers of different nationalities, spatial patterns are explained not only for total foreign employment but also for the 35 most important migration countries to Germany. Based on a total census for all 402 German districts, the paper starts by showing the spatial distributions of workers with different nationalities and explains the emerging patterns by spatial error models. Although large heterogeneity in determinants across nationalities are found, similarities between country groups prevail. Economic conditions matter for most nationalities, whereas the importance of amenities and openness differ.

Do Tourists Tip More Than Local Consumers? Evidence from Taxi Rides in New York City

Given the resurgence of cities as consumer centers and the importance of amenities, we revisit the differences in tipping in taxis between tourists and locals in New York City. Taxi service is an endogenous service; however, taxis also contribute to the demand and provision of other amenities. We compare locals and tourists who are theatergoers to control for education and income, as these factors are likely to affect tipping behavior. Using data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission on yellow taxis, we identify tourists as those trips leaving from or going to a hotel and theatergoers as trips where the drop-off or pickup is near Broadway within thirty minutes of the beginning or end of a show. We find that tourists and theatergoers tip more than locals and nontheatergoers, and tourists who are theatergoers tip even more. These differences between tourists and locals may affect the allocation of taxis throughout the city and hence the provision of other amenities.

Do Tourists Tip More Than Local Consumers? Evidence of Taxi Rides in New York City

Given the resurgence of cities as consumer centers and the importance of amenities, we revisit the differences in tipping in taxis between tourists and locals in New York City. Taxi service is an endogenous amenity; however, taxis also contribute to the demand and provision of other amenities. Using data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, we find that tourists and theatergoers tip more than locals and non-theatergoers, and tourists who are theatergoers tip even more. These differences between tourists and locals may affect the allocation of taxis throughout the city, and hence the provision of other amenities.

Environmental Consideration and Importance of Amenity in Agricultural and Rural Development Projects

Environmental Consideration and Importance of Amenity in Agricultural and Rural Development Projects

Space matters: the importance of amenity in planning metropolitan growth

Most Australian capital cities require many 100,000s of additional dwellings to accommodate demographic change and population pressures in the next two or three decades. Urban growth will come in the form of infill, consolidation and urban expansion. Plans to redevelop environmental amenities such as parks and open green spaces are regularly being put forward to local councils and State governments. Maintaining parks and reserves represents one of the largest costs to local councils. To aid in the evaluation of some of the different propositions, we report the results of a spatial hedonic pricing model with fixed effects for Adelaide, South Australia. The results indicate that the private benefits of a close proximity to golf courses, green space sporting facilities, or the coast, are in the order $0.54, $1.58, and $4.99 per metre closer (when evaluated at the median respectively). The historic Adelaide Parklands add $1.55 to a property’s value for each additional metre closer. We demonstrate how the estimated model could be used to calculate how local private benefits capitalized in property values change with changes in the configuration of a park.

WAGES, RENTS, AND HETEROGENEOUS MOVING COSTS

The model of compensating differentials in regional labor and land markets was formalized byRoback (1982). The model interprets regional differences in constant quality wages and rents as compensating firms and residents for inter‐regional differences in amenities. This paper extends the Roback model to allow for moving costs which vary among a city's residents and businesses. This modification of the model generates new interpretations of regional differences in rents and wages. The theoretical results suggest that the interpretation of inter‐city rent and wage differentials as compensating is misguided, that such differentials are inappropriate as weights in Quality of Life (QOL) comparisons, and stresses the importance of local housing market parameters in the determination of these differentials. The importance of amenities is retained, but housing supply becomes the main other determinant of regional rents. Housing supply was ignored in the literature following on Roback's initial insight. We show that interactions between amenities and housing supply will bias QOL rankings. Finally, we support the empirical importance of heterogeneous moving costs by demonstrating the effects of exogenous supply constraints on local housing prices.(JELR31)

Hate to Wait

A large and growing body of research suggests that transit users hate to wait. Given broad policy goals to increase public transit use in U.S. cities, this research sheds light on cost-effective ways to increase transit use by decreasing the perceived burdens of waiting at stops and stations. The goal of this study was to determine (a) the relative importance of stop and station amenities and attributes and (b) how the importance of these amenities and attributes varies with wait time. For this goal to be accomplished and for the duration of wait time when amenities become important to be determined a transit user survey that asked more than 2,000 travelers to rate both the importance of amenities at their stops or stations and their wait times was analyzed. Regardless of wait time, safety and on-time performance were paramount to riders; these also ranked highest relative to all other station and stop amenities examined. Lighting, cleanliness, information, shelter, and the presence of guards were less important to travelers when waits were short, but were more important with longer wait times. Thus, improving service frequency and reliability reduces the need for amenities at stations. This end suggests that when transit managers have a choice and when riders feel safe and secure managers should favor service improvements over station and stop amenities. Finally, some amenities become more important with long wait times, such as restrooms and food and drink facilities. Although provision of basic needs amenities is intuitive, restrooms and food and drink sales are most likely present at high-passenger-volume, high-service-frequency stops and stations, where they are valued least by travelers.

The Future of the Murray River: Amenity Re‐Considered?

AbstractMost efforts to restore environmental flows to the Murray River assume that it means resolving a dilemma between two competing needs: those of the environment and those of agriculturalists. This paper provides evidence to show amenity is also important, it is not being adequately considered, and that this, in turn, is impeding efforts to restore environmental flows.The paper contains a literature review of a number of studies which, when combined, show that the importance of amenity (tourism, recreation and lifestyle) is of similar scale (has significant economic value and community support) to productive values. Three case studies show that community concerns about loss of amenity values have impeded restoration programs despite evidence that existing practices are causing environmental damage. The debate about water use in the Murray is clearly not simply one between environment and production but also one involving lifestyles. The challenge is to better understand the nature and scale of amenity and its relationship to other natural resource management issues.

Wages, Rents and Heterogeneous Moving Costs (Second Version)

The model of compensating differentials in regional labor and land markets was formalized by Roback (1982). The model interprets regional differences in constant quality wages and rents as compensating firms and residents for inter-regional differences in amenities. While the model assumes that the costs of relocating to a new city are zero, the results hold in the presence of moving costs for the marginal migrant. This paper extends the Roback model to allow for moving costs which vary among a city's residents and businesses. This modification of the model generates new interpretations of regional differences in rents and wages. The theoretical results suggests that the interpretation of inter-city rent and wage differentials as compensating is misguided, that such differentials are inappropriate as weights in QOL comparisons and stresses the importance of local housing and labor market parameters in the determination of these differentials. The importance of amenities is retained, but housing supply becomes the main other determinant of regional rents. Housing supply was ignored in the literature following on Roback's initial insight. The new perspective also provides a bridge between the neoclassical perspective implicit in Roback's approach and the newer literature on agglomeration economies.

Amenity Valuing Differentiation in Residential Location Choice among Income Groups: A Stated Preference Approach

This study estimates the marginal values of housing attributes in residential location choice and compares the implicit prices of the housing attributes between income groups using a stated preference experiment. The implicit prices of amenity-related attributes for the higher income groups are estimated as 9 to 22 times higher than those for the lower income groups, while the implicit prices of access/space-related attributes for the higher income groups are 4 to 5 times higher than those for the lower income group. This result shows that the relative importance of amenities in residential location choice become more significant over income. This study also finds that willingness-to-pay for the intangible values including residential amenities is more than 50% of the total willingness-to-pay for the one level improvement of the current housing in the higher income group, but 35.6% in the middle income group and 27.4% in the lower income group. The empirical result in this study implies that monopolistic rent tends to be formulated through excessively substantial amenity values by the higher income group living in some confined residential areas. This study also implicitly shows that the metropolitan housing market is not a single equilibrium market, but is composed of the various submarkets over social stratification

The Importance of Amenities and Attitudes: A Washington Example

The Importance of Amenities and Attitudes: A Washington Example