The economics of skyscrapers: A synthesis

Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Jason Barr

Journal of Urban Economics, 2022, vol. 129, issue C

Abstract: We document that skyscraper growth since the end of the 19th century has been driven by a reduction in the cost of height, increasing urbanization, and rising incomes. These stylized facts guide us in developing a competitive open-city general equilibrium model of vertical and horizontal city structure. We use the model to show that (i) vertical costs and benefits affect the horizontal land use pattern within cities; (ii) the causal relationship between skyscrapers and urbanization is bi-directional; and (iii) height limits reduce the size of large cities, leading to lower agglomeration economies, productivity, and urban GDP. We substantiate the model’s predictions by novel estimates of urban height gradients.

Keywords: Density; Economics; History; Height regulations; Skyscraper; Urbanization; Skyscrapers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N9 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119021001017
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: The economics of skyscrapers: a synthesis (2022)
Working Paper: The economics of skyscrapers: a synthesis (2020)
Working Paper: The Economics of Skyscrapers: A Synthesis (2020)
Working Paper: The economics of skyscrapers: A synthesis (2020)
Working Paper: The economics of skyscrapers: a synthesis (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:129:y:2022:i:c:s0094119021001017

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2021.103419

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urban Economics is currently edited by S.S. Rosenthal and W.C. Strange

More articles in Journal of Urban Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().