Automobiles and urban density

Urban spatial structure

Francis Ostermeijer, Hans Koster, Jos van Ommeren and Victor Mayland Nielsen

Journal of Economic Geography, 2022, vol. 22, issue 5, 1073-1095

Abstract: How has the rise of the automobile influenced urban areas over the past century? In this paper, we investigate the long-run impact of car ownership on urban population density, based on a sample of 232 city observations in 57 countries. Using the presence of a domestic car manufacturer in 1920 as a source of exogenous variation, our IV estimates indicate that car ownership substantially reduces density. A one standard deviation increase in car ownership rates causes a reduction in population density of around 35%. For employment density, we find almost identical results. This result has important implications for vehicle taxation, car ownership growth in developing countries, and new transport technologies such as automated vehicles.

Keywords: Car ownership; vehicle costs; urban density (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R12 R14 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Automobiles and urban density (2020)
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