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作者

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt;Jason Barr

来源

来源 JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS,Vol.129,P.

语言

英文

关键字

Density;Economics;History;Height regulations;Skyscraper;Urbanization;Skyscrapers;R3;N9

作者单位

London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and CEPR, CESifo, CEP United Kingdom;Rutgers University-Newark United States;London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and CEPR, CESifo, CEP United Kingdom;Rutgers University-Newark United States

摘要

We document that skyscraper growth since the end of the 19th century has been driven by a reduction in the cost of height, increasing urbanization, and rising incomes. These stylized facts guide us in developing a competitive open-city general equilibrium model of vertical and horizontal city structure. We use the model to show that (i) vertical costs and benefits affect the horizontal land use pattern within cities; (ii) the causal relationship between skyscrapers and urbanization is bi-directional; and (iii) height limits reduce the size of large cities, leading to lower agglomeration economies, productivity, and urban GDP. We substantiate the model’s predictions by novel estimates of urban height gradients.