Essays on Environmental Regulation and Urban Redevelopment

Download or read book Essays on Environmental Regulation and Urban Redevelopment written by Nicholas Broc Irwin and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In my second chapter, I study the role a spatially targeted urban revitalization program in Baltimore, Maryland, has on neighborhood housing markets. Using a unique set of housing activity data coupled with neighborhood level data on demographics, the environment, and amenities, I exploit the implementation of the program, which created a preliminary list of neighborhoods to target for block-level vacant housing demolition and subsequently funded a selection of those neighborhoods to create a quasi-experimental model. My results show that neighborhoods receiving the program funding -- the treated group -- have a subsequently higher number of housing sales and housing renovations than the non-funded neighborhoods -- the control group -- but this effect only materializes when multiple projects receiving funding in a neighborhood. I also find that high levels of crime dampen the effectiveness of the program on neighborhood housing markets. In my third chapter, I focus on the role of spatial spillovers in the decision of individual homeowners to reinvest into their own housing stock. Using parcel level data from 2005-2008 in Baltimore, Maryland, I utilize a social interactions model to study the effect of previous neighboring renovations on the decision to renovate in the current period while controlling for underlying spatial correlation within the neighborhood. I find strong evidence of spatial spillovers in the renovation decision with an additional neighboring renovation increasing the likelihood of a renovation in the current period; results which are consistent across changing neighborhood size. The overall implications of my research are three-fold. Firstly, I find that the use of spatially explicit data, such as housing parcels, allows me to capture highly localized effects that introduce important sources of heterogeneity that would be overlooked without such data. Secondly, I find strong evidence that public policy creates spillovers that have the potential to generate positive multiplier effects that can magnify across broader spatial scales. Finally, I find that spatial relationships can be an important determinant on economic outcomes at both a parcel and neighborhood level.