Zoning and the Economic Geography of Cities

Allison Shertzer, Tate Twinam and Randall Walsh

No 22658, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Comprehensive zoning is ubiquitous in U.S. cities, yet we know surprisingly little about its long-run impacts. We provide the first attempt to measure the causal effect of land use regulation over the long term, using as our setting Chicago’s first (1923) comprehensive zoning ordinance. Our results indicate that zoning has had a broader and more significant impact on the spatial distribution of economic activity than was previously believed. In particular, zoning may be more important than either geography or transportation networks – the workhorses of urban economic geography models – in explaining where commercial and industrial activity are located.

JEL-codes: H7 N42 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
Note: EEE PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as Allison Shertzer & Tate Twinam & Randall P. Walsh, 2018. "ZONING AND THE ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF CITIES," Journal of Urban Economics, .

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Related works:
Journal Article: Zoning and the economic geography of cities (2018)
Working Paper: Zoning and the Economic Geography of Cities (2016)
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