Standard Urban Model Research Articles

A Critical Analysis of the Standard Urban Model in the Context of Greater Manchester

This study critically examines the applicability of the Standard Urban Model (SUM) in the context of Greater Manchester, utilizing empirical data and spatial analysis to explore its operational limitations and potentials. Originally conceptualized by William Alonso, the SUM provides a theoretical framework to understand intra-urban economic dynamics predicated on a monocentric city structure. Through a comprehensive dataset encompassing census demographics, housing prices, and GIS-mapped land-use patterns from 2015, this paper investigates the models ability to predict and describe urban land rent gradients and residential distribution relative to the citys Central Business District (CBD). The findings indicate that while the SUM may provide a generalized view of urban structure, it significantly underestimates the socio-economic diversities, technological advancements, and cultural influences that are inherent in urban development. Particularly, the analysis reveals that rental price declines with distance from the CBD are not as pronounced as predicted by the SUM, with a low coefficient of determination (R=0.2551). Furthermore, the study highlights how urban development in Manchester deviates from the monocentric model due to historical shifts, regeneration efforts, and the emergence of multi-centric hubs. This research underscores the necessity for adapting urban economic models to reflect the complexities and dynamic nature of modern cities, suggesting a shift towards more nuanced and flexible frameworks that accommodate the multifaceted influences on urban landscapes.

Climate policy and inequality in urban areas: Beyond incomes

Opposition to climate policies is partly due to their impacts on inequality. But with most economic studies focused on income inequalities, the quantitative spatial effect of economic climate policy instruments is poorly understood. Here, using a model derived from the standard urban model of urban economics, we simulate a fuel tax in Cape Town, South Africa, decomposing its impacts by income class, housing type, and location, and over different timeframes, assuming that agents gradually adapt. We find that in the short term, there are both income and spatial inequalities, with low-income households or suburban dwellers more negatively impacted. These inequalities persist in the medium and long terms, as the poorest households, living in informal or subsidized housing, have few or no ways to adapt to fuel price increases by changing housing type, size or location, or transportation mode. Low-income households living in formal housing are also impacted by the tax over the long term due to complex effects driven by competition with richer households in the housing market. Complementary policies promoting a flexible labor market, affordable public transportation, or subsidies that help low-income households live closer to employment centers will be key to the social acceptability of climate policies.

Testing the monocentric standard urban model in a global sample of cities

Using a unique dataset containing gridded data on population densities, rents, housing sizes, and transportation in 192 cities worldwide, we investigate the empirical relevance of the monocentric standard urban model (SUM). Overall, the SUM seems surprisingly capable of capturing the inner structure of cities, both in developed and developing countries. As expected, cities spread out when they are richer, more populated, and when transportation or farmland is cheaper. Respectively 100% and 87% of the cities exhibit the expected negative density and rent gradients: on average, a 1% decrease in income net of transportation costs leads to a 21% decrease in densities and a 3% decrease in rents per m2. We also investigate the heterogeneity between cities of different characteristics in terms of monocentricity, informality, and amenities.

The effects of a FAR regulation in a model of durable building with redevelopment: The case of New York City

This paper investigates the partial equilibrium effects of a floor area ratio (“FAR”) regulation in a growing city with rising rents. We extend the standard urban land-use model with FAR regulation in the existing literature to a dynamic setting to provide additional insight into development patterns in a city with a regulation which restricts the maximum-allowed FAR. We show that a FAR regulation hastens construction and lowers the density of buildings, and we also find the effects of a FAR regulation on land value to be consistent with the existing literature. We then demonstrate the relationship between a FAR regulation and land value and the relationship between the regulation and development patterns in New York City. Our data shows that all else equal, a lower maximum-allowed FAR is correlated with lower land values, earlier demolition of buildings, and lower density of newly constructed buildings.

Comparing cities in developed and developing countries: Population, land area, building height and crowding

Historically, richer countries have had larger cities than poorer countries. Today, urban giants are no longer concentrated in rich countries. However, there are clear differences in physical city characteristics associated with country incomes. These differences are easily reconciled mathematically as population is the product of land area, structure space per unit land (i.e., heights), and population per unit interior space (i.e., crowding). This paper explores how these components have changed for the whole world and what remains of the association between income and city development using a combination of harmonized old and new databases. We document that cities in richer countries are large because they build “out” and build “up”. Cities in poorer countries have become as large because they have crowded “in”. Therefore, similar city sizes now hide stark differences in physical urban development. We also show how the Standard Urban Model can account for both similarities and differences in physical urban development across countries

Industrial structure in urban accounting

We develop a multisector general equilibrium model of a system of cities to examine the quantitative significance of the industrial structure in determining the spatial structure. We identify three types of wedges: the efficiency wedge, the labor wedge, and amenity, which capture the extent to which the standard urban economics model fails to explain the observed characteristics empirically. We then calibrate the model to Japanese regional data and conduct counterfactual exercises to identify the significance of each wedge in each sector. We show that the labor wedge, which represents various labor market distortions, plays a primary role in determining the spatial structure and that the secondary sector is the most influential.

Land Use Controls Do Not Reduce the Elasticity of Housing Supply in the Standard Urban Model

A comprehensive literature tests the effects of land use regulation on housing supply. Most empirical studies find that regulation increases prices and decreases construction levels. Several papers also find a negative relation between regulation intensity and price elasticity of supply. However, we show the share of land available for development is unrelated to the elasticity of housing supply in the standard urban model. By affecting available land share, regulation raises the level of housing prices and reduces production, but does not change supply elasticity. These results suggest testing for the effects of regulatory or topographical constraints on housing supply should be in levels rather than elasticities.

How Should We Measure City Size? Theory and Evidence within and Across Rich and Poor Countries

It is obvious that holding city population constant, differences in cities across the world are enormous. Urban giants in poor countries are not large using measures such as land area, interior space or value of output. These differences are easily reconciled mathematically as population is the product of land area, structure space per unit land (i.e., heights), and population per unit interior space (i.e., crowding). The first two are far larger in the cities of developed countries while the latter is larger for the cities of developing countries. In order to study sources of diversity among cities with similar population, we construct a version of the standard urban model (SUM) that yields the prediction that the elasticity of city size with respect to income could be similar within both developing countries and developed countries. However, differences in income and urban technology can explain the physical differences between the cities of developed countries and developing countries. Second, using a variety of newly merged data sets, the predictions of the SUM for similarities and differences of cities in developed and developing countries are tested. The findings suggest that population is a sufficient statistic to characterize city differences among cities within the same country, not across countries.

Runoff prediction using rainfall data from microwave links: Tabor case study.

Rainfall spatio-temporal distribution is of great concern for rainfall-runoff modellers. Standard rainfall observations are, however, often scarce and/or expensive to obtain. Thus, rainfall observations from non-traditional sensors such as commercial microwave links (CMLs) represent a promising alternative. In this paper, rainfall observations from a municipal rain gauge (RG) monitoring network were complemented by CMLs and used as an input to a standard urban drainage model operated by the water utility of the Tabor agglomeration (CZ). Two rainfall datasets were used for runoff predictions: (i) the municipal RG network, i.e. the observation layout used by the water utility, and (ii) CMLs adjusted by the municipal RGs. The performance was evaluated in terms of runoff volumes and hydrograph shapes. The use of CMLs did not lead to distinctively better predictions in terms of runoff volumes; however, CMLs outperformed RGs used alone when reproducing a hydrograph's dynamics (peak discharges, Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and hydrograph's rising limb timing). This finding is promising for number of urban drainage tasks working with dynamics of the flow. Moreover, CML data can be obtained from a telecommunication operator's data cloud at virtually no cost. That makes their use attractive for cities unable to improve their monitoring infrastructure for economic or organizational reasons.

Extending standard urban outdoor noise propagation models to complex geometries

A hybrid method that combines a noise engineering method and the 2.5D boundary element method approximates outdoor sound propagation in large domains with complex objects more accurately than noise engineering methods alone and more efficiently than reference methods alone. Noise engineering methods (e.g., ISO 9613-2 or CNOSSOS-EU) efficiently approximate sound levels from roads, railways, and industrial sources in cities for simple, box-shaped geometries by first finding the propagation paths between the source and receiver, then applying attenuations (e.g., geometrical divergence and atmospheric absorption) to each path, and finally incoherently summing all of the path contributions. Standard engineering methods cannot model more complicated geometries but introducing an additional attenuation term quantifies the influence of complex objects. Calculating this extra attenuation term requires reference calculations but performing reference computations for each path is too computationally expensive. Thus, the extra attenuation term is linearly interpolated from a data table containing the corrections for many source/receiver positions and frequencies. The 2.5D boundary element method produces the levels for the real and simplified geometries and subtracting them yields a table of corrections. For a T-shaped barrier with two buildings, this approach reduces the mean error by approximately 2 dBA compared to a standard engineering method.

HOUSING CONSUMPTION DECLINES WITH INCOME IN THE OPEN‐CITY MODEL: THEORY AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

ABSTRACTThis paper demonstrates that the standard urban model (SUM) has important, previously unknown, and rather counterintuitive predictions about the determinants of housing consumption in cities. For example, the SUM predicts that, as higher wages in the central business district prompt city growth, the housing space per household falls, that is, rising income is associated with falling housing consumption. Empirical testing using a specially constructed panel data set of U.S. cities, confirms this prediction. When city size, income, and housing price rise, housing space per household falls.

TELEWORK: URBAN FORM, ENERGY CONSUMPTION, AND GREENHOUSE GAS IMPLICATIONS

A primary motivation of telework policy is to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Using a numerical simulation of the standard urban model, we show telework causes sprawl, calling into question the idea that telework decreases energy consumption. Overall effects depend on wage changes due to telework, land‐use regulation such as height limits or greenbelts, and the telework participation rate. While energy consumption increases in some scenarios, emissions may fall due to changes in the energy mix between gasoline and other sources. (JEL R11, R28, C60)

Is the sky the limit? High-rise buildings and office rents

Modern central business districts are characterized by high-rise office buildings, but their presence cannot be explained by standard urban economic models only. We aim to explore the impact of other forces that explain the presence of tall buildings, by examining the existence of a building height premium. We find that Dutch firms are willing to pay on average about 4% more for a building that is 10m taller, implying a substantial premium associated with tall buildings. This premium is thought to be due to a combination of a within-building agglomeration economies, a landmark and a view effect. Given functional form assumptions on the agglomeration effect, the results suggest that the sum of the landmark and view effect is about 2.8–5.5% of the rent for a building that is five times the average height.

Criminalitŕ urbana e periferie criminogene: il caso di Napoli

- Some aspects of local culture and practices, including planning practices, connected with the camorra (mafia of the Campania region) emerge in the origin and development of the outer districts of Naples and in its social question. Naples does not have ‘one' outer district, as in the standard European urban model, but has a new post earthquake outer ring next to the city centre, historically an occasion for the reproduction and metamorphosis of the camorra. It is not by chance that one characteristic of Neapolitan culture in the past was social promiscuity, which while it lies at the origin of the camorra's control, is also a factor in the growth of the poorest groups in society. This belief is reflected in proposals to redefine the city centre of Naples as a university campus and the student population as a means of social mixing and economic revitalisation of the city centre.

Directional Land Value Gradients

The standard urban model supports the concept of a constant land price gradient throughout the urban area. It is a reasonable conjecture that the land price gradient would vary with direction from the CBD. The variation in the gradient could be caused by a number of factors, but the idea that the land price gradient is flatter along radial transportation routes than in other directions is widely recognized even though there is little rigorous empirical work supporting this belief. This paper will examine the structure of urban land prices with a focus on the land price gradient as a function of the direction around the center of the city using a piecewise linear function. The added flexibility in the gradient estimate gained by this approach reveals a dramatically varying directional land price gradient.

A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers are urbanism in the extreme, but they have received surprisingly little attention in urban economics. The standard urban model emphasizes differentials in access across locations, which determine land price differentials and building heights. This explanation leaves out an important force that appears to have historically influenced skyscraper construction: an inherent value placed on being the tallest. In this paper, we present a gametheoretic model of skyscraper development that captures this additional force. The model predicts dissipative competition over the prize of being tallest, a prediction consistent with the historical record. The paper discusses the implications of this result for the nature and efficiency of urban development and for the operation of urban real estate markets.

A game-theoretic analysis of skyscrapers

Skyscrapers are urbanism in the extreme, but they have received surprisingly little direct attention in urban economics. The standard urban model emphasizes differentials in access across locations, which determine land price differentials and building heights. This explanation leaves out an important force that appears to have historically influenced skyscraper construction: an inherent value placed on being the tallest. In this paper, we present a game-theoretic model of skyscraper development that captures this additional force. The model predicts dissipative competition over the prize of being tallest, a prediction consistent with the historical record. The paper discusses the implications of this result for the nature and efficiency of urban development and for the operation of urban real estate markets.

On the distribution of city sizes

The city size distribution in many countries is remarkably well described by a Pareto distribution. We derive conditions that standard urban models must satisfy in order to explain this regularity. We show that under general conditions urban models must have (i) a balanced growth path and (ii) a Pareto distribution for the underlying source of randomness. In particular, one of the following combinations can induce a Pareto distribution of city sizes: (i) preferences for different goods follow reflected random walks, and the elasticity of substitution between goods is 1; or (ii) total factor productivities of different goods follow reflected random walks, and increasing returns are equal across goods.

Urban comparative statics when commuting cost depends on income

This article investigates the comparative-static properties of an urban model where commuting cost is a function of income. In the standard urban model [Wheaton, W.C., 1974. A comparative static analysis of urban spatial structure. J. Econ. Theory 9, 223–237] commuting cost depends only on distance, but a more realistic formulation makes commuting cost per mile an increasing function of income. In contrast to the results based on the standard urban model, land rent at the central business district rises as income grows if the time cost of commuting is greater than the operating cost.

A note on the equilibrium and optimum of a transitional urban economy: The case of China

Abstract. This research note presents a simple urban model of the Chinese two‐tier plan/market economy, and investigates the equilibrium and optimum by comparison with a standard urban model of the market economy. We show that the Chinese urban economy has a possibility of being out of equilibrium and becoming unstable when the amount of land assigned by the government to firms is too much relative to the labor assigned to them. Furthermore, the model indicates that, while the Chinese urban economy would have a greater total differential land rent than the market economy, the Chinese urban residents would be worse off in terms of their earned wage income.