Applications of quantitative spatial models in spatial and urban planning

Makovsky, Lukas (2023) Applications of quantitative spatial models in spatial and urban planning. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

In the three chapters of this thesis I analyse issues related to spatial and urban planning in the context of the Czech Republic. Besides standard reduced-form methods, I employ quantitative spatial models that are gradually more commonly used in the urban and regional economic research. First, quantitative spatial models allow to circumvent problem of not observing some data, and second, to study second-order general equilibrium adjustment effects that cannot be captured within reduced-form empirical methods. In the first chapter I estimate agglomeration wage economies across the country. As wage data at a sufficiently detailed geographical level are not available, I have used a quantitative spatial model to infer them from commuting patterns. In the second stage, I then estimated the effect of labour market size and density of employment on wages. Labour-market level wage elasticity of 0.07 is somewhat larger, but comparable with existing literature. Additionally, I show agglomeration economies are rising with level of education achieved. The second chapter analyses housing construction constraints caused by spatial planning and building permitting processes. First, I show reduced-form evidence indicates that an increase in stringency of these two types of policies decreases new construction. Second, I embed a realistic housing production function into an existing quantitative spatial model framework and calibrate it on data from 1991 to 2011 to predict counterfactual scenarios. Realistic relaxation of policies could increase households’ indirect utility by up to 4%. In the third chapter I investigate effects of noise on open green spaces amenity value in the city of Prague. To control for unobserved quality of greenery I use a quantitative spatial model to back-out their quality using survey data of places used for recreation. The results show noise decreases value of greenery, but only if accessible greenery is spatially concentrated.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2023 Lukas Makovsky
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD100 Land Use
Sets:	Departments > Geography and Environment
Supervisor:	Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. and Carozzi, Felipe
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4584

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