Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation is composed of three chapters that explore different issues within urban economics. The first two, jointly authored with Ditte Lyngemark from the Kraks Fond Institute for Urban Economic Research, focus on the spatial organization of firms, while the third one studies different effects of land use regulations within cities. The first chapter studies the spatial structure of firms by considering the location and occupational composition of establishments within firms. Using Danish employer-employee data, we document that the average number of establishments per firm increased by 36% between 1981 and 2016. Moreover, the average distance of establishments and workers to their headquarters (HQ) increased by more than 200%. These changes are mainly driven by the decentralization of production and business services. Finally, HQ establishments have become more manager intensive, despite increasing wages in their locations. The second chapter investigates the forces governing the previous facts, especially the roles of regional wage differences and communication costs. Our study proceeds theoretically and empirically, concluding with the first structural analysis of this issue. Using immigration shocks as the source of identifying variation, our estimates indicate that increases in the wage of managers at HQ relative to non-HQ explain 50% of the increase in HQ managerial intensity. Increasing demand for headquarter services as satellite establishments become larger is the main mechanism behind this effect. Wider wage gaps across locations also lead to more establishments per firm, and this effect strengthens as communication costs fall. In the last chapter, I study the incidence and general equilibrium effects of land use regulations. I use detailed geographic data for Chicago in 2016, together with a quantitative model with worker heterogeneity and real estate developers facing regulations. For identification, I use the 1923 Zoning Ordinance. I find that an increase of 10 percentage points in the share of residential zoning in a location leads to a 1% decrease in housing prices, a 15% decrease in wages and a 2.5% increase in amenities. I find that more residential and mixed-use zoning lead to welfare gains for both types of residents, but increase welfare inequality.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Authors: Acosta Mejía, Camilo Andrés
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3165135899