Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States

Henry Overman, Diego Puga and Matthew Turner

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper decomposes the growth in land occupied by residences in the United States to give the relative contributions of changing demographics versus changes in residential land per household. Between 1976 and 1992 the amount of residential land in the United States grew 47.7% while population only grew 17.8%. At first glance, this suggest an important role for per-household increases. However, the calculations in this paper show that only 24.5% of the growth in residential land area can be attributed to state-level changes in land per household. 37.3% is due to overall population growth, 22.6% to an increase in the number of households over this period, 6% to the shift of population towards states with larger houses, and the remaining 9.6% to interactions between these changes. There are large differences across states and metropolitan areas in the relative importance of these components.

Keywords: land use; residential areas; growth rates; households; demographic change; housing; comparative analysis Longitudinal studies; U.S.A. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O51 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in Regional Science and Urban Economics, September, 2008, 38(5), pp. 487-497. ISSN: 0166-0462

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/30786/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States (2008)
Working Paper: Decomposing the Growth in Residential Land in the United States (2007)
Working Paper: Decomposing the Growth in Residential Land in the United States (2007)
Working Paper: Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States (2007)
Working Paper: Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States (2007)
Working Paper: Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States (2007)
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