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A novel discrete choice experiment (DCE) design allows testing of substitution effects based on the framing of, and distances to, substitute sites. The same ecosystem services and biodiversity provided at different sites are valued independently in single- site DCEs and simultaneously in a multiple- site DCE, using an identical experimental design. Site-specific utility functions are estimated with and without controlling for spatial preference heterogeneity. Framing choices as alternative projects at single or multiple sites significantly influences substitutability between sites, choice behavior, and welfare estimates. Distance decay displays significant heterogeneity in different directions from the valued sites and between urban and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Per acre prices of agricultural land increase as parcel sizes decrease. The puzzle is why all agricultural land is not sold in small parcels. Small parcels tend to be close to residential areas and close to quality roads. The small parcel premium lessens as parcels are more distant from urban areas. This suggests that much of the small parcel premium is due to parcels being purchased based on nonagricultural use values. Thus, an explanation of the small parcel premium puzzle is that land with low nonagricultural use values may not have a small parcel premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effects of switching from a capital property tax to a land value tax, using an urban computable general equilibrium model calibrated to the features of the Atlanta, Georgia, area. Our model differs from prior simulation studies in that we assume that residents own a fixed amount of land rather than assuming an absentee landowner, we consider three income groups rather than just one, we consider cases in which housing capital is not completely mobile, and we allow for a labor-leisure choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does growth management result in lower marginal land consumption rates? The literature offers inconclusive and inconsistent results. This paper uses new data covering all U.S. metropolitan areas and multiple time periods to estimate panel models of effects of growth management on the spatial extent of urban development. Dummy variable estimation misleadingly suggests that growth management increases urban area extent. However, fixed-effect estimates across different growth management regimes find that more highly regulated regions and stronger planning states have lower marginal land consumption rates, while regional containment policies, as measured here, do not appear to reduce the size of urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedonic valuation of urban amenities often requires estimating housing and labor market regressions. It is difficult to get both types of data for all survey respondents. We show that the common practice of conducting two separate regressions with unbalanced data causes inconsistent covariance matrix estimation and improper inference regarding amenity values. We demonstrate how two easily implementable yet consistent techniques can be used for hedonic valuation with an application in valuing temperature increases in urban Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential land use in urban areas can be constrained by zoning or restrictive covenants. When covenants and zoning exist simultaneously, covenants can facilitate an efficient allocation of high-restriction and low-restriction residential land. However, covenants cannot remedy deadweight loss resulting from zoning that over-allocates land to high restriction use. We examine subdivided, vacant residential lot sales from two residential zones which differ in both minimum lot size and the minimum square feet of house. Our findings of a negative price effect from covenant use in the more restricted zone suggest that private restrictions are over-supplied in that zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advisability of an urban-centered growth strategy to reap the benefits of urban agglomeration economies is much debated. Rural areas benefit when the growth "'spreads" to the hinterlands, especially within daily commuting distance. Yet, in distant-peripheral locations, urban growth may create a "backwash" as households relocate to the urban center. This study examines spread vs. backwash, as separate from long-run, distance-from-urban-center trend effects, using a novel Canadian GIS database. The unique nation-wide approach yields a spread and backwash rural-growth topography that varies by distance from the urban center, by urban population vs. income growth, and by size of rural community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the demand for air quality in four MSAs in the United States is presented using the American Housing Survey data from 1974-1991, the Decennial U.S. Censuses, and the EPA Aerometric Information Retrieval System. The marginal prices of air quality are obtained from parameter estimates for the pollution variables in a hedonic house price model, and the marginal willingness to pay (inverse demand) equations for air quality are estimated using these prices. In two of the four (inverse) demand for air quality equations, the own-good coefficient is negative and significant, while the income coefficient is positive and significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates the value of wetland amenities in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area using the hedonic property price model. Residential housing and wetland data are used to relate the sales price of a property to structural characteristics, neighborhood attributes, and amenities of wetlands and other environmental characteristics. Measures of interest are distance to and size of wetlands, including distance to four different wetland types; open water, emergent vegetation, scrub-shrub, and forested. Other environmental variables include proximity to parks, lakes, streams, and rivers. Results indicate that wetlands influence the value of residential property and that wetlands influence property values differently than other amenities. Increasing the size of the nearest wetland to a residence by one acre increased the residence's value by $24. Similarly, reducing the distance to the nearest wetland by 1,000 feet increased the value by $436. Home values were not influenced by wetland type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents measures of segregation in public schools for metropolitan areas. It shows that, not only are metropolitan areas very segregated, most Of that segregation is due to racial disparities between districts rather than segregative patterns within districts. Metropolitan areas in the South and West tend to have larger districts, and thus feature tess fragmentation by school district. Segregation at the metropolitan level appears to vary systematically with size, racial mix, and region. Because larger metropolitan areas tend to have more jurisdictions and exhibit greater differences in racial composition among jurisdictions, measured segregation rises with size, as measured by school enrollment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of spatial structural change are investigated for eight Functional Economic' Areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Residential population density functions are estimated using census tract level data and cubic spline regression methods. Comparisons of 1980 and 1990 density profiles indicate that population decentralization accompanied metropolitan growth during the 1980s. This redistribution was limited, however, to rural tracts at the urban fringe. Population densities were stable or declined in tracts more distant from the nodal center. Thus, backwash effects were evident in most rural areas in the economic regions' hinterlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

n this paper we estimate the elasticity of demand for landfill disposal of municipal solid waste using data from the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Efficiency losses associated with deviations from marginal cost pricing of disposal services are then derived. The efficiency losses of small deviations from long-run marginal disposal costs are not large. However, many municipalities finance solid waste services from general tax revenues, in which case waste generators effectively face zero marginal costs. Here, the efficiency losses are much larger, indicating that communities would benefit from introducing volume or weight-based pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical, evidence on the determinants of new office-firm location within a metropolitan area is of interest for several reasons. The suburbanization of manufacturing and trade has left central cities increasingly dependent on office activities as a source of taxes and employment. An understanding of new firm location is therefore useful in planning infrastructure improvements or designing policies to influence where development takes place throughout the metropolitan areas. In this respect, new office location is of particular interest since office-housed industries are expected to grow more rapidly than other industries within metropolitan areas. This article provides a theoretical model for the study of the intrametropolitan location of a particular type of new firm, those that locate in offices. The results provide strong confirmation of the hypothesis that the location decisions of new office firms within metropolitan areas are a function of spatial variation in variables that affect profits. Variables measuring locational differences in wage rates, transportation rates, distances to customers and suppliers of support services, land prices and demand were all found to have an influence on the locations selected by both new independent and branch offices.

The expansion of metropolitan areas into the countryside, a trend that became particularly pronounced after World War II, has caused considerable concern because of its potentially deleterious effects on farming (Raup 1975; Plaut 1980). These effects can be of two kinds. First, metropolitan expansion involves the direct conversion of farmland to provide the land needed for housing, commercial development, and transportation. To slow this loss, many states and counties have instituted "farmland preservation" strategies, such as purchase of development rights, agricultural zoning, and preferential assessment for farmland (Peterson 1982; Coughlin et al. undated). Second, metropolitan expansion can affect the agriculture that remains, either because of the increase in the non-farming population or as a secondary consequence of the loss of farmland. These effects generally are depicted as adverse (Berry 1978; Berry and Plaut 1978). In fact, some observers consider them more important than the direct loss of farmland, so that the proportional decline in farming can be much greater than the decline in farmland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports estimates of metropolitan area specific rates of economic depreciation for residential real estate obtained using the hedonic pricing methodology. Separate hedonic equations were estimated for owner-occupied and renter-occupied properties for each of 59 metropolitan areas. With the exception of variables that identified particular locations within the urban area, the same hedonic equation was used to estimate tenure specific depreciation rates. That is, the same hedonic specification was used for each of the 59 metropolitan areas to estimate depreciation rates for owner-occupied and for renter-occupied housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the appropriate estimation of intrametropolitan firm location models. The analysis in several papers of intrametropolitan firm location is performed on a data set that excludes those jurisdictions that zone out firms. The general conclusion from these studies is that when these jurisdictions are removed from the sample, the fiscal variables, especially taxes, become statistically significant determinants of firm location choices. This is in contrast to the conclusions about the tax variables when all jurisdictions are included in the analysis. The argument for the removal of these jurisdictions is that if jurisdictions zone out firms, then it is inappropriate to include these jurisdictions in the sample as they are not places that are supplying sites for firm locations. Thus including such places in the sample may bias the estimation results. Whether or not jurisdictions zone out firms, there is still a problem of censored data in the dependent variable. More specifically, there are some jurisdictions to which no firms relocate, and potentially many of the observations for the dependent variable are zero.

The purpose of this paper is to present alternative tests of the standard urban model. The tests focus upon the structural model and whether households' locational choices satisfy the model's equilibrium condition. The test procedure consists of two parts. First, the locational equilibrium condition specified by the structural model is evaluated for households from several metropolitan areas to directly assess the extent to which the concretion holds. Second, a demand system incorporating the locational equilibrium condition is estimated. As an intermediate step, housing price-distance functions for both owner-occupied and rental housing are estimated for several metropolitan areas. The implied housing price patterns provide additional insight into the validity of the standard urban model. In accordance with the model's assumptions, the analysis includes households whose only worker is employed at the city center. The next section briefly reviews the theoretical framework of the standard urban model. Section III describes the data used in the analysis. The fourth section presents the tests and summarizes their results. Conclusions of the analysis and suggested directions for future research arc discussed in the final section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on the market for single-family residential real estate, where the potential for inefficient pricing is, arguably, most severe. Despite obvious differences between real estate markets and the securities market, our central thesis is that the real estate market is efficient in the sense that current prices will fully reflect available historical price information. The notion that profitable trading strategies cannot be developed on the basis of past price information is referred to as the "weak form" of the efficient markets hypothesis. This notion of market efficiency is generally supported by empirical research in the market for financial assets, but has not been tested on real estate data. In the context of the real estate market, the weak form efficient markets hypothesis implies that historical transactions data on housing prices provide no economically exploitable information to current investors. The implication tested in this paper is that it should not be possible to develop trading rules based on past prices that systematically will enable an investor to out-perform the market by investing in selected real properties. This paper presents results of empirical tests of the efficient markets hypothesis based on housing price data for 57 metropolitan areas. This study improves on previous research by specifically accounting for implicit rental flows. After incorporating rental service flows into the analysis, our evidence suggests that past prices do contain information relevant to predicting future prices. However, once transactions costs are considered, various tilter strategies or trading rules cannot be profitably used to outperform an invest-in-the market strategy for urban housing investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An examination, of the recent data on the spatial distribution of manufacturing employment in the largest metropolitan areas of the U.S. leaves little doubt that the majority of the new industrial location activity that is occurring in metropolitan America is in its suburbs. The increasing importance of the suburbs as a location for manufacturing activity raises important efficiency and equity issues for government decision makers at all levels. This paper deals with one of these efficiency issues—the impact of locai government activities on the spatial allocation of industrial investment in the suburbs of a metropolitan area. There are two important aspects to this issue. The first is the extent to which community fiscal activities influence the spatial pattern of demand for industrial sites in an urban area. The second is the factors that influence community policy towards industrial development and thus determine the pattern of supply of industrial sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypothesis tests derived from regressions run on a pooled sample of 1970 and 1975 observations from the residential location mar- ket in metropolitan Tokyo provide evidence of intertemporal structural changes in the HPF. This casts doubt on the propriety of using an estimated HPF for benefit estimation of changes in local public good provision which takes place long after the data were collected. Moreover, as the observed change is limited to the valuation of only a subset of the characteristics, an across-the-board adjustment for inflation (intercept shift) does not appear to be the proper solution. Investigation of the structural stability of the Implicit market demand should provide important insight into these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent papers have found that there is a systematic relationship between urban size and geographic living cost differentials (Cebula 1980 and 1984; Hogan 1984). These papers have analyzed the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Urban Family Budgets for 37 metropolitan areas because they are the one data source that provides the required geographically comparable data. This paper provides further evidence on this subject by offering new empirical evidence using county-based cost of living data. A unique data set on the prices of six commodity groups for Florida counties makes this analysis possible. An alternative to the agglomeration/congestion explanation of geographic living cost differentials is rooted in rent theory. Rent theory is an obvious alternative, because it directly relates urban size to land rents and, presumably, the cost of living. For Florida counties, population density is not significantly different from zero and population has a highly significant positive coefficient. This suggests that the agglomeration/ congestion hypothesis is not very robust with respect to changing samples. This problem could be caused by a change in the model, a different level of aggregation, or very different types of places included in the sample.

This article focuses on the price effects of urban growth boundaries in Portland. The 1973 legislature, which created the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), conceived a system with local participation yet central control. As the state's central planning authority, LCDC directs the planning process through enforcement of statewide goals and guidelines. Using cross-section data, this study measures the effects of Urban Growth Boundary (UGBs) on vacant single-family land values in metropolitan Portland, Oregon. According to conventional economic theory, land-use policies that influence the allocation of land must affect land values. This analysis of the residential land market in metropolitan Portland, Oregon, sought to identify the price effects of urban growth boundaries. A model of the effects of UGBs was presented where it was suggested that UGBs affect land values via the timing of traditional land-use constraints. Observations of land values in the market place were then used to test the suggested model.

This article focuses on the price effects of urban growth boundaries (UGB) in metropolitan Portland. The 1973 legislature, which created the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), conceived a system with local participation yet central control. As the state's central planning authority, LCDC directs the planning process through enforcement of statewide goals and guidelines. Using cross-section data, this study measures the effects of UGBs on vacant single-family land values in metropolitan Portland, Oregon. According to conventional economic theory, land-use policies that influence the allocation of land must affect land values. This analysis of the residential land market in metropolitan Portland, Oregon, sought to identify the price effects of urban growth boundaries. A model of the effects of UGBs was presented where it was suggested that UGBs affect land values via the timing of traditional land-use constraints. Observations of land values in the market place were then used to test the suggested model.

In a recent issue of this journal, Cebula (1980) presented results of an empirical investigation of differentials in living costs in the United States. Cebula employed the total intermediate budget figures for 1975 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Urban Family Budget (1976) as his cost-of-living measure and used data for 37 of the SMSAs for which these budget figures were compiled as his data set. For his analysis, Cebula hypothesized a model in which the cost of living was a function of five variables relating to each metropolitan area: (1) population size; (2) population density; (3) per capita income; (4) per capita property taxes; and (5) existence of a right-to-work law in the state in which the SMSA was primarily located. Using OLS procedures, Cebula estimated a regression model that was able to explain over two thirds of the variance in his living-cost measure across the metropolitan areas (R²=.69) and in which the estimated coefficients of all five explanatory variables were indicated to be statistically significant and to have the hypothesized sign. The total budget figures used in the analysis were compiled by the BLS through summing up the costs that would be incurred by a hypothetical "family of four" to purchase a specific market basket of goods and services (along with taxes and certain other items) in each SMSA. When publishing the Family Budget, the BLS also provided cost estimates of separate budget categories in addition to the aggregate figures. Based upon these disaggregated budget data, this study uses the same empirical model employed by Cebula (with the same Five explanatory variables) to estimate separate regression equations for each of the 12 budget categories included in the total Family Budget. The results of this exercise provide additional insight concerning why living costs vary across the nation and also suggest that some of the hypothesized relationships, which were supported by his aggregate analysis, may be open to question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retailing has long been recognized as one of the basic functions of the CBD, even in large metropolitan areas. The rapid decentralization of this function, which continues apace (Morrill 1982), is often regarded as either a cause or a symptom of CBD decline in large SMSAs. Such previous studies as Casparis (1967) and Kottis and Kottis (1972) have not been updated, and they have a conceptual deficiency. Since the fate of CBD retail sales is determined by the interaction of the growth (or decline) of metropolitan retail sales and the centralization (or decentralization) of those sales, it is especially important to examine the interaction, if exogenous factors have qualitatively different impacts on the two patterns. It is quite plausible, for example, that rapid metropolitan growth, which would increase retail sales in the SMSA as a whole, would also increase the proportion of those sales being made outside the CBD. The overall impact on the CBD would then depend on the relative sizes of these offsetting effects. We provide here an updated analysis of CBD retail sales in 96 large metropolitan areas, using data from the 1972 Census of Retail Trade and the 1970 Census of Population (U.S. Bureau of The Census 1972, 1973, 1976), while remedying the deficiency. The centralization model proves to be quite different in the latter period than in the former, and four variables are found to affect SMSA sales and the centralization of those sales in ways that have offsetting qualitative impacts on the CBD. The most important policy conclusion is that the CBD retail function apparently fares better in SMSAs with higher use of public transit and with more diverse retail bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The location and pace of housing development within a metropolitan area has traditionally been affected by the availability of basic utility services: water, sewage, drainage, electricity, telephone, and gas. In areas where these services did not exist, development simply did not take place. The extension of public utilities has been a means for controlling where urban growth occurs (Frieden 1979). In most communities, these utilities—notably, water, sewage, and drainage—are under the control of municipally owned companies. Urban development normally depends on the willingness of these companies to extend utility lines to serve new developments. Municipal Utility Districts (MUD's) offer an alternative to regional utility companies (RUC's) for providing primary utility services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic advantages and disadvantages of MUD's, with particular reference to their comparative role in the growth of two major Texas cities—Dallas and Houston. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on alternative approaches to regional tax-base sharing. The Minnesota Fiscal Disparities Act, passed by the state legislature in 1973, established the nation's first program for the sharing of property tax bases among independent jurisdictions in a metropolitan area. Under the Minnesota system, localities within the Twin Cities region contribute a portion of the local growth in commercial and industrial tax base to a metropolitan pool, which is then redistributed in inverse proportion to local per capita assessed valuation of all property. This plan has served as a model for legislation proposed in several other states, including Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, and California, but no other state has as yet enacted a plan. The Minnesota legislature did not, of course, originate the idea that fiscal disparities among local units of government should be reduced by redistributing effective local tax bases. The close similarities between base sharing and state equalizing aids have not been widely recognized.

The article focuses on fiscal differentials and intrametropolitan firm relocation. Despite limited evidence, some economists and policymakers are reluctant to conclude that fiscal variables, especially taxes, have a negligible impact on the location decisions of firms. Economist William Oakland notes that intrametropolitan property tax differentials may equal as much as 10% of a firm's profits. In these cases, one might expect that fiscal variables would affect the intraurban location decision of firms. The article examines the hypothesis that when municipalities which zone-out firms in a particular industry are excluded from the sample, fiscal variables are determinants of firm relocation. The hypothesis is tested for firms in six industries: construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, finance and services. The results indicate that local property tax differentials are a statistically significant determinant of relocation for manufacturing and wholesale trade firms when municipalities which zone-out industry are excluded from the sample.

The article presents a mathematical model, which depicts the demand flow in gasoline and petroleum prices. Estimates of the model suggest first, that auto work-trip generation is influenced by the relative concentration of population and employment in a particular metropolitan area. Other variables, including the price, availability of mass transit, and recent growth of the metropolitan area, also influence trip generation. Second, the model depicts the relative impact on energy consumption from the various spatial trip patterns. The migration patterns of the population and of jobs, and the spatial location of economic activity within urban areas, can significantly impact the demand for certain energy resources. The results indicate that any long run national energy policy should be developed simultaneously with national urban policy. It appears that the spatial allocation of urban population and employment have a large impact, through modifying travel patterns, on energy use.

This article focuses on the effects of greenbelts on residential property values. Implicit in the concept of greenbelts are two complementary purposes, the preservation of land in a natural, garden-like, or agrarian state, and the shaping and limitation of urban spread. The existence of greenbelts may have a significant impact on adjacent property values. Thus, while the value of the purely public good may be difficult or impossible to estimate, this quasi-collective value can be conceptually defined and empirically evaluated in at least approximate terms. A number of policy questions arise with respect to this increase in property values. Of course, this potential increase in tax revenue substantially overstates the gain from such purchases by the city for two important reasons. First, assessments of property typically do not fully capture increments in property values associated with such amenities. Given the current scope of the open space program, it is reasonable to assume that 85 to 95 percent of tax revenue generated by greenbelt accrues to residents of the county. However, as purchases of greenbelts are made by sub-urban communities in an attempt to shape and limit growth and preserve open space within the region, the benefits and costs will increasingly spill over city and county boundaries to the wider metropolitan area.

The level and distribution of family income in 1969 varied widely across Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in the United States. Stamford, Connecticut, had the highest median income, $15,862; Bristol, Connecticut, had the most equally distributed incomes, a Gini coefficient of .272. Of all the metropolitan areas, McAllen, Texas, was the poorest, with a median income of $4,776, as well as the most unequal, with a Gini coefficient of 469. In this paper a model of the determinants of this variation in income levels and size distributions is formulated and estimated. The model emphasizes the role of the industrial structure of the area. In the job competition model, the individual's earnings depend not on his own endowments, but on the job he acquires. The marginal product adheres not to the person, but to the job. Labor demand, not the background skills of the labor force, determines the number and types of jobs that exist. These depend on technology, interdependent preferences, and customary wage differentials in the workplace.

The distribution of population within metropolitan areas is of vital importance to social scientists since there is a variety of socioeconomic problems related to the spatial phenomenon. These problems have grave implications for the future of American cities. This paper examines the process of population deconcentration within American metropolitan areas during the twentieth century. Specific focus is given to regional variations with particular emphasis on population deconcentration in the western region of the United States. By the use of the negative exponential function as a measure of population concentration, trends in population concentration since 1900 are summarized. Based on this research, implications are drawn for the future population distribution of metropolitan areas in western United States. There is an important advantage to the measurement of population concentration in terms of the density gradient: it is a clear, interval-level, interpretable variable. It may be contrasted with comparisons of rates of growth between central cities and suburban rings, which do not offer an adequate basis for the scientific explanation of population concentration.

The article focuses on fiscal incidence through an analysis of the benefit and tax incidence of the local and federal governments in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area in 1970. The paper discusses the methodology employed for estimating both the benefit incidence generated by subfederal government expenditures in the Washington metropolitan area, and the incidence of the taxes imposed by these governments. It analyzes the net fiscal residuals generated by the separate benefit and tax incidence estimates presented by income classes and geographic sections of the metropolitan area. The fiscal residuals estimated in this fashion are compared with fiscal residuals estimated in other studies. The analysis concludes that there is notable horizontal fiscal inequality across the Washington metropolitan area. Equally situated households are apparently better off in Washington D.C. than in the suburban area for incomes at least up to $15,000 and they are better off in the suburban areas for those with the highest incomes. It also appears that the city is at least one central city that may not necessarily be in need of increased transfers from its suburban area.

The objective of this study is to estimate and analyze an urban demand function for undeveloped land in the urban rural fringe. The urban-rural fringe includes land along the boundaries of a city, in the suburbs, in small incorporated towns near the city and extending into the unincorporated, partially developed countryside surrounding the city. It is the area where land is in transition. This land market is basically a private market subject to public controls such as zoning and taxation. Emerging land-use problems, such as the costs of extending urban services to increasingly dispersed urban activity and unprofitable agriculture near urban centers because of rising property tax assessments, will likely lead to increased public control of land use. Contributing to the increasing importance of these problems are population growth, income growth leading to increased dispersion of population, migration, dispersion of business activity, land speculation, more highways and recreation, and zoning and taxation policies.

The article presents case study of cost benefit analysis for evaluating transportation proposals. Although most economists and public officials understand the theory of cost benefit analysis, there seems to be great difficulty when it comes to applying this technique to real world problems. The article critically examines a cost benefit study undertaken for a proposed rapid transit system in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in order to illustrate the problems and suggest alternative methods for treating them. For the proposed Los Angeles rapid transit system, the benefit cost ratio is favorable only because many benefits are incorrectly calculated due to factors like inflation, anticipated unemployment reduction and expenditure decreases along with double counting and the inclusion of non quantifiable benefits, Many costs are understated or omitted entirely and the passenger estimates are overly optimistic. Passenger estimates is an important factor and is particularly important because passenger estimates are crucial to a cost benefit study of any rapid transit system.

This article presents information on the residential movements of the low income families of Bogotá, Colombia. Two types of illegal housing settlements are considered: the housing settlement of invasion that is formed by the illegal occupation of private or public land without payment for that land, and the pirate housing settlement. The latter is originated by the acquisition of peripheral land by developers who subsequently sell it by lot to individual families. The land transaction is legal. But the dwelling units constructed in these settlements are often in violation of the municipal codes for housing developments. It is opined that the residential location of low-income families is constrained by the structure of the housing and land markets. This article makes an attempt to identify the dynamic forces that determine the low-income family residential choices by location and housing tenancy. It also examines the process of suburbanization of low-income groups and the physical growth pattern of the metropolitan region.

This article presents information on the waste of prime agricultural land by the ever expanding metropolitan area. Although urbanization is responsible partly for national growth and development, it has left very little space for utilization of land in the public interest. It is opined that a reexamination of the forces affecting these land-use decisions might suggest an alternative policy which could contribute towards more effective preservation of open space throughout metropolitan areas. Present development ignores the open space value of land and provides inadequate open areas. It is suggested that a tax on new developments, if properly administered and utilized, could alleviate both of these problems. Coordinating a development tax with effective planning would expose the value of open space and thereby allow the market to recognize the full social value of land. It also suggested that in response to a proposed development of an area, the concerned authorities should first determine the open space plan best suited to that land use. One having identified those areas desired for open space uses, the authority should estimate their cost and determine the tax rate which must be applied to the remaining property in that area as it is developed, in order to finance the acquisition of the areas to be preserved.

This study develops a simple supply and demand model of the urban land market and, using data for the Houston metropolitan area, tests its explanatory power with multiple regression techniques. Land developers pay no more for these services on the fringes of a municipality than they would be required to pay in the central part of the city. Thus taxpayers as a group would be better off and resources would be saved if urban sprawl were eliminated. In order to explain the process through which urban land is developed it is necessary to understand how the market for urban land functions.

The article presents the author's comments on the urban life of London, England. The author says that London is not only the ancient metropolis of England and Wales but it is the new metropolis of Scotland and Ireland and moreover of the increased colonies in all parts of the world. All the colonists consider London as their home. The increase of government establishments including the treasury, the customs, the excise, army, navy and tax offices and banks and other financial institutions are new hopes. None of these establishments provide board and lodging for their clerks and their families. Hence all houses from forty pounds to one hundred pounds per annum are eagerly taken by this class and they are constantly on the increase in their department. Persons who live upon annuities derived from the increased public funds and from the numerous stock companies created in the metropolis are a large class of new metropolis keepers. The general increase of the metropolis, by adding to the mass of luxury, has increased the number of artisans and persons employed on objects of luxury such as painters, engravers, jewelers, embroiders, authors, designers and other like description.

The article says that a number of empirical studies have demonstrated that in case of developing nations and metropolitan areas, income inequality tends to diminish as the level of income rises. This relationship is known as "Kuznets hypothesis." If such a tendency holds true for depressed regions, income inequality should be somewhat greater in these areas than for the nation as a whole and should tend to decrease as these regions achieve levels of development. The purpose of this article is to present comparable empirical incomes in some U.S. depressed areas including Appalachia, Coastal Plains, Four Corners, New England, the Ozarks and the Upper Great Lakes. Information on the distribution of families by income class and the share of income claimed by each of these classes is readily available only by state. Consequently, in depressed regions that are cosmopolites of several whole and partial states, income distribution data is estimated. This is accomplished by first aggregating the distribution of families by income class for each of the counties that fall in the respective regions and secondly by estimating the mean income classes. The product of the number of families and the mean family income of a class provides the estimated share of income claimed by that class.

This paper focuses on one aspect of metropolitan spatial structure-the location of manufacturing activity-and attempts to analyze the processes that have produced changes in it. We have chosen New Jersey as our subject of study. Combining core areas and suburbs, the state affords a full range of observable growth and change patterns. Substantial portions of the state comprise the suburban rings of New York and Philadelphia. Accordingly, overlapping regional systems are present with several of New Jersey's major cities located within the regional dominance of New York and Philadelphia. Hudson County, for instance, has been classified in the core of the New York metropolitan area. For these reasons, New Jersey provides an especially suitable setting for the study of differential manufacturing growth rates. Our findings suggest strongly that research on the determinants of establishment growth and decline is of the utmost importance in any analysis of the factors producing change in the employment distribution. Industry mix can be expected to affect this growth, as can scale, technology, markets and a number of other features. Establishment geographic location might very well be a secondary consideration.

The article sets forth an examination of residential mobility in different size metropolitan areas with particular emphasis on how change in place of residence is related to selected housing characteristics. Particular attention is focused on city-suburban differences. The analysis is based on data obtained in a random sample of nearly 3,000 households in central city and suburban zones in six metropolitan areas in three different population size classes. So as to maximize the analysis potential an approximately equal number of interviews were obtained in each area regardless of size or area. The U.S. population is generally characterized as being highly mobile. While metropolitan areas are made up in large part of migrants, a sizable majority of the residents have lived in the community for ten years or more. However, there is substantial residential mobility within the area. From one-third to two-fifths of the residents lived at their present address for less than three years. Regardless of previous tenure and place of residence most moves were to owner-occupied structures.

This article focuses on the application of an existing macroeconomic framework to the problem of measuring development in a metropolitan area and its component counties. The method of analysis used in this study, shift-share analysis, can be applied to any metropolitan area to measure development change. The technique allows simultaneous treatment of both income and employment, it utilizes secondary data, and it allows periodic updates at minimal cost with relative ease. The shift-share analysis defines regions by relating them quantitatively, and to some extent qualitatively, to the national norms and to one another, it characterizes the economic structure of the various regions in relative terms, it highlights the extent to which various aspects of growth are uniform across the nation, it identifies the growth elements in the area and it allows description of key economic relationships. The first factor, the national-growth effect, measures the employment and income change of an area in terms of the national economy. The second factor, the industrial-mix effect, results from differences between the income or employment structure of an area and of the nation. The third factor, the regional-share effect, measures the competitive position of an area or component in the area in relation to the rest of the nation.

According to the author, there is no current study, which compares the relative stages of retail development among Latin American metropolitan areas and relates these findings to the market in the United States. This study is designed to fill this information gap and concurrently provide a base for estimating likely future changes in Latin America's retail structure. Those metropolitan areas, which represent the leading edge of retail development within Latin America, were selected for this study. These metropolitan areas invariably contain the largest population concentrations and are most frequently the economic and cultural centers of their respective countries. It can convincingly be argued in fact that multi-use project with relatively small concentrations of retail use will provide a more logical means of capturing increased consumer expenditures in Latin America, maximize developer profits, and be more compatible with development trends. This implies then that regional center development will be largely dependent upon the aggressiveness of major department store chains, increasing sophistication of developers, and a move to a longer-range outlook on the part of the principals involved in real estate projects.

For those who can afford additional transportation and communication costs the importance of clustering into a compact central city in order to have access to services, jobs, and associates is subsiding in minor as well as major metropolises. Conditions such as the strong acceptance of automobile transportation, circumferential highways around the outskirts of central cities, decentralized businesses and industries) attractive new suburban housing developments complete with schools, churches, and major shopping centers are not limited to larger, older metropolitan areas. Consequently, a new stage is unfolding in which the middle and upper classes will be decentralized in the small, new metropolises before they grow and age. In the coming years many of the fiscal and social problems that now plague mainly the nation's large cities will also be a heavy burden for small urban centers. If this country is interested in preserving the long-run viability of our small central ones, now is the time for planners and policy-makers to start developing innovative strategies for achieving this goal.

Yerba Buena Center is a land-clearance and redevelopment project being carried out on 87 acres of land in downtown San Francisco. It will convert a site formerly occupied by small businesses, light manufacturing, and residence hotels into a major convention-sports-office center. The nearly 4,000 residents of the Yerba Buena site-mainly low-income, elderly, white males living alone-and the 700 businesses-primarily light manufacturing concerns and small shops-are to be relocated and their land totally cleared to make way for this "higher and better use." This article treats the short-range municipal revenue considerations as well as the longer-range questions of local economic stability and growth raised by the Yerba Buena project. The Yerba Buena project originated with and has been supported by certain well-defined segments with in the city's business community. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is carrying out the plan in part as a representative of this community, in part because the Agency assumes that the goals it is fostering represent the interests of the city as a whole.

Commuting is a major vehicle of metropolitan influence on its immediate hinterland. At greater distances, migration becomes the major vehicle. The interest in migration linkages between smaller metropolitan centers and their hinterlands is related to two policy objectives. The first is the spread of economic growth and its effects from development centers as visualized in regional development planning. The other is an emerging national population policy that would redirect migration from larger to smaller SMSAs or that would reduce the amount of outmigration from less urban-metropolitan regions. This paper reports findings of a study of job migration between the 85 autonomous SMSAs with 1960 population of less than 250,000 and their hinterlands. The SMSA boundaries are determined largely by commuting criteria. The hinterlands-which are the Rand-McNally trading areas-are defined in terms of shopping goods dependence on the SMSA and are limited to counties outside the SMSA. largely beyond the normal commuting area of the SMSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the recent trends in Industrial Park Location in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Certain trends are evident in the locational characteristics of industrial parks in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. At first there was a movement outward from the civilian-based defense (CBD) coupled with a distinct tendency to cluster near O'Hare. In recent years, more parks have tended to locate closer to the CBD, possibly as a result of some large tracts of land becoming available for development as industrial parks. The development of industrial parks on the sites previously occupied by Chicago's Riverview Amusement Park and the Union Stockyards are two examples. This recent growth of industrial parks within the city may not continue, for presently there are very few tracts of land well situated or of adequate size for industrial park development. Knowledge of locational trends discussed should benefit planners and industrialists, as well as developers of industrial parks. By knowing the trends, especially among the more useful parks, planners should be in a better position to develop the more sensible urban plans.

In recent years many large cities have been purchasing floodplains for recreational use. The advantages of utilizing floodplains for recreation use are more obvious than are the disadvantages which have received less public attention. This paper focuses on the efficacy of floodplains as a source of recreation land for metropolitan areas. Several advantages for buying floodplains for recreational use are usually espoused by planners. Land acquisition expenditures for recreational development are much less for the city which opts to buy floodplain land rather than more costly land. When appropriately and adequately zoned, floodplain lands have fewer improvements and the improvements on the floodplains are less valuable than comparable structures located outside the floodplain. Finally, the vulnerability of floodplain lands to flooding limits the uses that can he made of this land. Floodplain land provides art ideal setting for particular kinds of recreational activities. Water-based activities such as boating. fishing and swimming are typical of recreational uses made of floodplains.