Urban Revival in America, 2000 to 2010

Victor Couture and Jessie Handbury

No 24084, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper documents and explains the striking rise in the proclivity of college-educated individuals to reside near city centers since 2000. We show that this recent urban revival is driven almost entirely by younger college graduates in larger cities. With a residential choice model, we quantify the role of jobs, amenities, and house prices in explaining this trend. We find that the rising taste of young college graduates for non-tradable service amenities like restaurants and nightlife accounts for more than 40 percent of their movement toward city centers. Complementary data shows a corresponding rise in young college graduate expenditures on and trips to non-tradable services. We then link changes in both consumption and urbanization to secular trends of top income growth and delayed family formation amongst young college graduates.

JEL-codes: R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Note: ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

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