Cities in Bad Shape: Urban Geometry in India
By Mariaflavia Harari. The American Economic Review, 2020
216 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The spatial layout of cities is an important feature of urban form, highlighted by urban planners but overlooked by economists. This paper investigates the causal economic implications of city shape in India. I measure cities’ geometric properties over time using satellite imagery and historical maps. I develop an instrument for urban shape based on geographic obstacles encountered by expanding cities. Compact city shape is associated with faster population growth and households display positive willingness to pay for more compact layouts. Transit accessibility is an important channel. Land use regulations can contribute to deteriorating city shape. (JEL O18, R14, R23, R52, R58)
Subfields: Building and Construction, Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d70ae544bf6183a9d5c4efcd23e29c467c93c29f
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In Economics and Econometrics
Citations in the corpus
- Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Night-Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform (2021, background): “…extent, public expenditure, and electricity supply and demand, among other variables (Henderson, Storeygard, and Weil 2011; Baum-Snow et al. 2017; Bleakley and Lin 2012; Min et al. 2013; Hodler and Raschky 2014; Baskaran, Min, and Uppal 2015; Burlig and Preonas 2016; Harari 2020; Mahadevan 2021).”