要旨：In a closed monocentric city with three distinct land use patterns consisting of firms, condominiums and housing lots, we determine simultaneous optimization of regulations on building size, lot size and zonal boundaries under the existence of agglomeration externality in the business district and of traffic congestion externality in the residential zones. Results show that the optimal regulations are at most second best, and require not only downward adjustment to the market size of buildings at outer locations using maximum FAR regulation but also upward adjustment at more central locations using minimum FAR regulation within the business district, and similar regulations in the condominium zone, followed by a cap on the minimum lot size in the suburb. Moreover, the optimal city size is more compact than a market city, but whether the business district size should be compact or greater, depends on the relative level of agglomeration externality and the congestion. In addition, the boundary between condominium zone and housing lot zone does not need to be controlled.

要旨：我が国のタクシー産業は1993年から段階的に規制緩和が実施されており特に2002年の規制緩和は需給調整機能の廃止を目的とした参入規制や運賃制度の緩和が実施された。本研究の目的は我が国のタクシー産業における需要関数の推計を行い、2002年の規制緩和が消費者の動向へ与えた効果を計測することである。推定結果によれば需要の価格弾力性は負であり、運賃と2002年規制緩和ダミーの交差項は正に有意であるので、価格弾力性は0へ近づいた。つまり、規制緩和によって需要の価格弾力性が小さくなり、消費者にとってタクシーが必需品に近づいたと言える。これは規制緩和に伴って発生した各種新サービスが有効に機能した結果と考えられる。

20120829program　当日天候不良のため、報告は中止されました。

20120829program

20120829program

要旨：The U.S. regional data shows that there is observed a tendency that the skill premium in a region is positively correlated with the relative supply of skill in that region, which suggests there exists something beyond the law of supply and demand. Unlike the typical interpretation by urban economists, this paper provides a simple static two-region general equilibrium model of comparative advantage with monopolistic competition, interpreted as skill-biased technical change, in order to explain the fact without relying on technological externality. It is shown that the ex-ante identical regions specialize in industries with different skill intensities as a result of circular causation working through the interaction between comparative advantage and skill-biased technical change, and the associated essentially unique equilibrium exhibits the positive correlation under a certain set of parameters. The model is then extended by introducing a technological externality in order to argue that technological externality itself does not guarantee welfare improvements given the existence of scarce land. More importantly, it is also argued that the economy-wide skill-biased technical change by reducing the benefit from specialization acts as a dispersion force, and thus it could reduce the welfare gain from technological externality.