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Many North American jurisdictions have legalized the operation of recreational marijuana dispensaries. A common concern is that dispensaries may contribute to local crime. Identifying the effect of dispensaries on crime is confounded by the spatial endogeneity of dispensary locations. Washington State allocated dispensary licenses through a lottery, providing a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of dispensaries on neighborhood-level crime. Combining lottery data with detailed geocoded crime data, we estimate that the presence of a dispensary has no significant impact on local crime in the average neighborhood. We estimate a small rise in property crime in low-income neighborhoods specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime is one of the problems faced by countries worldwide. Theft, gambling, drug, fraud, persecution, and conflict are among the crimes that commonly occur in Indonesia, which may be accounted for by a range of factors, including economic ones. Land use also emerges as another factor leading to crimes. Land use at the village level can be divided into three categories: undiversified, moderately diversified, and diversified. This work applied two analysis models. First, it employed logistic regression to capture the criminal possibility of each land use category. Second, it applied Ordinary Least Square to view crimes holistically in each land use category. This paper suggests that mixed land use and public space could significantly lower crime probability. Meanwhile, using land as a business and industrial center was found to trigger crimes. The existence of prostitution areas in villages/subdistricts raises the possibility of a rise in human trafficking and sexual Harassment. This study showed that using land as a public space potentially increases conflicts in Indonesia. This study provided the Indonesian government with a new insight to consider when developing an area by taking land use diversity into account in order to minimize crime risks.

This article investigates the impact of working from home (WFH) on the emergence and structure of monocentric cities. In the long run, WFH raises urban productivity only in sufficiently large cities. Business land rents fall while residential land rents decrease near the business district. Workers have incentives to adopt inefficiently high WFH schemes. In the short run, WFH yields mixed benefits for commuters and firms, which corroborates the low WFH adoption before the pandemic. Advances in digital technology increase the welfare benefits of WFH. Calibration exercises on European capital cities shed light on the quantitative impact of WFH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each type of administrative unit, including cities, towns and villages, plays a different role in the regional economy. In the case of rural areas, their most important function is agricultural production.

We analyze land-use regulation and the determinants thereof across Swiss municipalities. We construct several residential development stringency indices based on a comprehensive survey. These indices capture various aspects of local regulation and land-use coordination across jurisdictions. Combining these indices, we construct an index that provides harmonized information about what local regulation entails and the local regulatory environment across municipalities. Our analysis shows that historical building density, natural amenities, socio-demographic factors, cultural aspects and municipal competition are important determinants of local land-use regulation. However, a large share of land-use regulation variation remains unexplained. Moreover, our results indicate that more stringent land-use regulation is associated with steeper house price increases but less urban sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of this article, it was shown that the indicators of the current so-called social distance determined by decision-makers at various stages of the epidemic development are imprecise, do not sufficiently take into account spatial relations, are unclear in public perception, and do not contain specific practical solutions. Therefore, this study undertakes the task of giving the term “social distancing” precise features, defined on the basis of geometry, and providing solutions in typical cases of the living space of the population. The geometry of the distribution of people in various situations of everyday life was considered: people standing during concerts or religious ceremonies, sitting during meals in collective catering rooms and participating in lectures, cultural, entertainment or sports events. In the latter group of tasks, the concept of building a people-distribution scheme must be adapted to the existing, arbitrary grid of real places of a lecture hall, theater hall, cinema, or stadium. The article contains some practical examples with comments and an evaluation of benefits, both in terms of ensuring safety and in terms of effective use of space.

Subsidizing homeownership decentralizes cities, as Muth (1967) suggested over half a century ago. This article focuses on the related question of whether repealing a homeownership subsidy recentralizes cities. This question is relevant today, given the ubiquity of homeownership subsidies. We provide a first quasi-experimental test of a subsidy repeal's spatial effects by examining Germany's 2005 homeownership subsidy reform. We find that repealing the subsidy contributed to recentralizing Germany's cities. Since recentralization helps abate carbon dioxide emissions, repealing a homeownership subsidy also helps mitigate climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The airport may be an opportunity for the development of airport-proximate areas, as well as a source of conflicts and nuisances for stakeholders. From the perspective of spatial order and sustainable development, it is necessary to create a coherent vision of the development and operationalize it via spatial management. This article aims to analyze spatial management in areas proximate to Gdansk Airport in the context of spatial chaos. The analyses are based on 232 local spatial development plans for the period 1996-2020, for 11 selected areas in the vicinity of the Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport, documents obtained from the local government, and open-source data. The research concentrates on the analysis of the functions of areas, spatial chaos, and the threat of potential conflicts. The results demonstrate the spatial chaos in proximate areas of Gdansk Airport. This implies that the decisions made by the authorities responsible for spatial management do not respect spatial order and sustainable development and contribute to spatial chaos.

State intervention in the housing market can take many different forms. In Poland, in 2018, a lex specialis regulation was introduced to the general principles of spatial policy in terms of special privileges for developers operating in the housing market. As the entity responsible for local spatial policy, the municipality has been deprived of its decision-making power by granting developers who build residential buildings the right to act against local planning rules. The article aims to determine the preparation of the largest Polish cities to negotiate with developers through the adoption of local urban standards, the scale of use of lex developer solutions in these cities, and the analysis of the level of non-compliance in privileged investments with local planning rules. The study used desk research methods (critical literature analysis, source materials - texts of legal acts and statistical data), case studies, and comparative analysis. The conducted research allows for answering the research question posed in work: the level of completion of lex specialis purposes indicated by the legislator.

The study analyses the economic and environmental performance of the 353 municipalities in the region of Campania in waste disposal and collection services. The study consists of three steps. Firstly, municipal performance in waste management services from a linear economy point view is assessed. Secondly, a circular economy paradigm is considered, and the economic (costs minimization) and environmental (unsorted waste minimization) performance is measured jointly. For these propose, two different Data Envelopment Analysis models are employed using the information provided by the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research for the year 2016. Third, in order to rank the most virtuous municipalities toward a circular economy paradigm, the study defines a measure of the efficiency deviation from environmental sustainability. The results show a cluster of municipalities in the metropolitan area of Naples and Caserta with a worse performance in the environmental dimension but with a good performance in the economic dimension. The succession of national and regional regulations has accentuated the uncertainty in the executive process and in the management of the waste cycle, creating a regulatory vacuum. Local governments should act on citizen motivations, promoting awareness on environmental issues, and should implement time-saving collection methods. Highlights: We analyse the economic and environmental performance of the 353 municipalities of the Campania region in waste disposal and collection services. Two different input-oriented models are used to analyse the input and output information provided by the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research for 2016. The analysis highlights the importance of jointly assessing the economic and environmental dimension of the production process related to the management of municipal solid waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When nonresidents purchase agricultural properties, the land use decision can make farmland operate below potential, still allowing for tax credits. We empirically investigate how nonresident ownership affects the agricultural land use decisions in upstate New York. A difference-in-difference matching approach shows a causal link between purchases by nonresidents and a loss of 11% of acreage to a lower-productivity use. A generalization shows this conversion counts for one-seventh of the decreased agricultural land in intensive uses in similar counties. Perhaps a simple opportunistic use of the tax-credit criteria, this phenomenon contradicts the policy's objective and might impose other consequences on rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Costa Rica, a land tax valuation model provided by the Technical Standardization Body (ONT) of the Ministry of Finance is used. This model considers homogeneous areas that include properties with similar characteristics and review factors that have not been recently updated. The objective of this article is to determine the effect of the distance to the train station and mobile coverage on the value of land in Oreamuno, Costa Rica, as a proposal to be included in the mass valuation model of the ONT. A multiple regression econometric model was used to establish the functional relationship between the value of the property and its characteristics, through the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method, using 10 variables applied to 200 references initially. The results allow demonstrating that other variables such as “Distance to the train station” and “Mobile coverage” are representative for determining the value of properties, in addition to those commonly used by the ONT model. The research allows concluding that the land valuation models should be updated periodically and should include variables related to improvements in technology and access roads, since these increase the market value of properties and improve the social development of localities in study.

Most of the cities in Iran have experienced very rapid development. The urban population in the last decade has been increased by migration, and cities in Iran are faced with many problems. Housing is becoming one of the major problems, and standard housing indices have taken an important place in urban planning to provide good conditions for better urban planning. Region 6 of Tehran municipality is home to a large portion of upper-middle social class people for whom owning a house is more than merely a place to live. The aim of the research was to analyze qualitative and quantitative indices for Region 6 of Tehran municipality. The study is based on analytical and descriptive methods. The secondary data collected from the latest Iran census report in 2016 and composite methods used to measure the special effects of changes in population size, growth rate, and indices of quantitative and qualitative assessment are wide-ranging housing which was analyzed based on the t-test, correlation test and regression with SPSS and GIS software. GIS software is used as an effective tool for generating maps to better understanding the behaviors of residents in a neighborhood. The result shows that Region 6 of Tehran is among the areas of serious urban decline and neighborhoods in the neighboring regions are influenced by the activities of other bordering neighborhoods.

This paper provides an overview of the challenges of management of facilities at public universities in Africa. Results reveal that: poor condition and the overcrowding of facilities, limited skills and capabilities of facility management departments, and lack of financial resources are the main challenges which the management of facilities at public universities in Africa faces. In worse situations, these problems have adversely affected the quality of the learning and teaching environment at the institutions and also threatened their existence. Prioritization of funding for the provision and improvement of quality facilities at public universities by governments, employment of well qualified and trained staff in the facility management departments at the public universities, and creation of innovative and smarter public-private partnerships aimed at the improvement of existing facilities and provision of new ones were identified as the key solutions that can be implemented to address the challenges that public universities in Africa are facing in relation to facilities. Findings will support public universities in Africa to address challenges of management of their facilities so that they can continue to achieve their intended objectives of offering high quality higher education, research and community engagement in order to accelerate socio-economic development of their countries on the continent in the future.

How do consumers value conformity, and what are the implications for conservation policy? In this article, we study conformity in homeowners' landscaping choices—which have important consequences for water consumption—for housing parcels throughout a large arid American city. We use machine learning techniques to generate precise land cover classifications on each parcel from remote sensing imagery, allowing us to obtain hedonic estimates of the marginal value of conformity. Our work is unique as the first to study this behavioral phenomenon using rich observational data from a real‐world market. We then overlay these estimates on a theoretical model to characterize how conformity motives interact with conservation. We find that Pigouvian pricing is roughly half as effective in the presence of conformity, as our estimated conformity effects will countervail price effects. This work shows how behavioral phenomena, such as conformity, may have empirically relevant impacts on the effectiveness of standard conservation interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is regularly threatened by the occurrence of weather shocks. We wonder whether the way farmers respond to shocks can affect land use and induce deforestation. Reviewing the existing literature, we found that this question has only been marginally studied. Drawing from the adaptation and land-use change literatures, we then expose the mechanisms through which weather shocks can push farmers to induce land-use change, or conversely to foster conservation. As farmers cope with shocks, their responses can cause degradations in ecosystems which could, in the long term, encourage deforestation and land-use change. To prepare for the next growing season, or adapt to climate variability and risk in the longer term, farmers also make structural adjustments in their farm and land-use decisions, which may lead to changes in land holding. They also resort to adaptation strategies that can indirectly affect land-use decisions by affecting households' resources (labor, income). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that critical factors affecting real estate project decisions can vary while market changes in the city of Ahmedabad have led to the majority of landmark buildings facing obsolesce, redevelopment and spatial redundancy. Case studies can assist in data collection in the cultural context and accommodate indirect observations of the variables analyzed in the early stages of research (Teegavarapu & Summers, 2008; Rowley, 2002). Decisions have led to capital losses for some, while bringing about profitable opportunities for developers who take timely risks.

The concept of market absorption and carrying capacity in economic terms are adequate to the real estate market, even though the legislator uses only the concept of the absorptive capacity of the area in the planning process. The aim of the study is to discuss the concept of carrying capacity and absorption of the real estate market in economic and planning terms as well as the application of conclusions from literature studies and determination of capacity and absorption on a specific selected local market.

Boundaries of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Poland change constantly and preferential conditions, including attractive investment land sites, become important factors underlining a decision to choose the location of an enterprise.

PurposeWe sought to examine how different activities performed during employment gaps are associated with later cognitive function and change.MethodsFive cognitive measures were used to indicate cognitive impairment of 18,259 respondents to the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (ages 50-73) in 2004/5 or 2006/7. Using complete employment histories, employment gaps of ≥6 months between ages 25 and 65 were identified.ResultsControlling for early life socioeconomic status, school performance, and education, higher risk of cognitive impairment was associated with employment gaps described as unemployment (odds ratio [OR], 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.35) and sickness (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.52-2.09). In contrast, lower risk of cognitive impairment was associated with employment gaps described as training (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.52-1.01) or maternity leave (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.57-0.79). In longitudinal mixed effects models, training and maternity leave were associated with lower 2-year aging-related cognitive decline.DiscussionPeriods away from work described as unemployment or sickness are associated with lower cognitive function, whereas maternity and training leaves are associated with better late-life cognitive function. Both causation and selection mechanisms may explain these findings.