Does `Smart Growth' Matter to Public Finance?

John I. Carruthers and Gudmundur F. Úlfarsson
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John I. Carruthers: Office of Policy Development and Research, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 8226, Washington, DC 20410, USA, john.i.carruthers@hud.gov, National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, the University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Gudmundur F. Úlfarsson: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Iceland, Hjardarhaga 6, IS-107, Reykjavik, Iceland, gfu@hi.is

Urban Studies, 2008, vol. 45, issue 9, 1791-1823

Abstract: This paper addresses four fundamental questions about the relationship between `smart growth', a fiscally motivated anti-sprawl policy movement, and public finance. Do low-density, spatially extensive land use patterns cost more to support? If so, how large an influence does sprawl actually have? How does the influence differ among types of spending? And, how does it compare with the influence of other relevant factors? The analysis, which is based on the entire continental US and uses a series of spatial econometric models to evaluate one aggregate (total direct) and nine disaggregate (education, fire protection, housing and community development, libraries, parks and recreation, police protection, roadways, sewerage, and solid waste disposal) measures of spending, provides the most detailed evidence to date of how sprawl affects the vast sum of revenue that local governments spend every year.

Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:45:y:2008:i:9:p:1791-1823

DOI: 10.1177/0042098008093379

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