Abstract：(Tentative) We draw on new granular data from cities around the world to study how the spatial distribution of income within cities varies with development. We document that in less-developed countries, average incomes of urban residents decline monotonically in distance to the city center, whereas income-distance gradients are flat or increasing in developed economies. We also show that urban neighborhoods with natural amenities – in hills and near rivers – are poorer than average in lessdeveloped countries and richer than average in developed ones. We hypothesize that these patterns arise due to the differences in the provision of residential and transportation infrastructure within cites. Using a quantitative urban model, we show that observed differences in residential and transportation infrastructure help explain a significant fraction of how the spatial income distribution within cities varies with income per capita.

【Paper】

Abstract: We explore the impact of public school assignment reforms by building a households’ school choice model with two key features—(1) endogenous residential location choice and (2) opt-out to outside schooling options. Households decide where to live taking into account that locations determine access-to-school—admissions probabilities and commuting distances to schools. Households are heterogeneous both in observed and unobserved characteristics. We estimate the model using administrative data from New York City’s middle school choice system. Variation from a boundary discontinuity design separately identifies preferences for access-to-school from other location amenities. Residential sorting based on access-to-school preference explains 30% of the gap in test scores of schools attended by minority students versus their peers. If households’ residential locations were fixed, a reform that introduces purely lottery-based admissions to schools in lower- and mid-Manhattan would reduce the cross-racial gap by 7%. However, households’ endogenous location choices dampen the effect by half.

【Paper】5/1改訂版　【資料】5/16掲載　【Slide】5/17掲載

Abstract: Knowledge creation either in isolation or joint with another person, using either face to face or internet contact and incorporating internet search ability is analyzed. Both a conceptual phase and a technical phase of research are analyzed, allowing workers to choose endogenously their mode of communication. In addition to formal knowledge, tacit knowledge plays an essential role in the knowledge production process, as it is not internalized. Lead time for face to face communication plays a key role. The sink point is inefficient. Our framework is applied to pandemic restrictions on face to face communication.

【Paper】【Slides】(5/5更新)

Abstract: Urban informality, which is prevalent in Africa’s rapidly growing cities, can reduce private investments, lower tax bases, and exacerbate urban disamenities. A key policy tool to address this problem is greenfield urban planning where governments purchase cheap agricultural land on the urban fringe and partition it into planned, surveyed, and titled de novo plots, which people can purchase and build houses on. Yet, there is very little systematic evidence on the effects of de novo planning choices, such as the size and configuration of residential and non-residential plots. We study the consequences of such planning decisions in Tanzania’s “20,000 plot” project, which provided over 36,000 residential plots in 12 project areas on the fringes of Dar es Salaam in the early 2000s. We study this project using detailed maps, questionnaires, and satellite imagery, and we combine within-neighborhood analysis and spatial regression discontinuity designs. We find that overall, the project secured property rights and access, thus boosting land values, and attracting highly educated owners; small plots, which command higher land values and are built more intensively, are under-provided; access to main paved roads is prized; and development rates are higher where plot layout is more gridded and small plots are bunched together. But planned non-residential amenities are ignored due to low implementation rates and about half the plots are still unbuilt, suggesting that despite the project’s success, significant improvements are possible.

要旨：Young women outnumber young men in cities in many countries during periods of economic growth and urbanization. This gender imbalance among young urbanites is more pronounced in larger cities. We use the gradual rollout of special economic zones across China as a quasi-experiment to establish the causal impact of urbanization on gender-differential incentives to migrate. Our analysis suggests that a plausible explanation is rural women’s higher likelihood of marrying and marrying up in cities during rapid urbanization.