Essays on Urban Economics

Second part of thesis explores the connection between the property tax and urban sprawl. While the tax's depressing effect on improvements reduces population density, spurring the spatial expansion of cities, a countervailing effect from lower dwelling sizes may dominate, raising densities and making cities smaller. The analysis shows that this latter outcome is guaranteed under CES preferences when the elasticity of substitution sigma, is high. But numerical results for the Leontief case (where sigma is zero) suggest that the property tax encourages urban sprawl when substitution between housing and other goods is low. Thus, the distortions generated by the property tax may include inefficient spatial expansion of cities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Hyun-A

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brueckner, Jan K.

• Economics, General

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3023091

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85509