Exciting, Boring, and Nonexistent Skylines: Vertical Building Gaps in Global Perspective

Remi Jedwab and Jason Barr

No 10365, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Despite the widespread prevalence and economic importance of tall buildings, little is known about how their patterns vary across space and time. This paper focuses on vertical real estate, aiming to quantify differences across major world regions over time (1950–2020). The paper exploits a novel database on the location, height (above 55 meters), and year of construction of nearly all the tall buildings in the world. It proposes a new methodology to estimate the extent to which some world regions build up more than others given similar economic and geographic conditions, city size distributions, and other features. The analyses reveal that many skylines may visually appear more prominent than they really are once all the tall buildings and core controls are included, which alters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height of buildings, and building function, the paper classifies world regions into different groups, finding that international tall building stocks are mostly driven by boring skylines of residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent exciting skylines of skyscrapers and supertall office towers. Finally, land use regulations and preferences, not historical preservation nor dispersed ownership, likely account for most of the observed differences.

Date: 2023-03-15
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Related works:
Journal Article: Exciting, boring, and nonexistent skylines: Vertical building gaps in global perspective (2023)
Working Paper: Exciting, Boring, and Non-Existent Skylines: Vertical Building Gaps in Global Perspective (2022)
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