Essays on household mobility, urban amenities, economic opportunities and costs.

摘要

Quality of Life comparisons across urban areas have typically been studied separately by either equilibrium or disequilibrium frameworks. Chapter One proposes a model incorporating individual migration decisions into the static equilibrium model. An algorithm proposed can be used to compute the transition paths from disequilibrium to equilibrium. At a more general level, the model is dynamic in that migrants are allowed to have impacts on sending and receiving locations, and they can move multiple times. The analysis includes the case of traditional equilibrium as well as the more general cases where there exist moving costs, heterogeneity in preferences and neighborhood effects. Results suggest that generally, the system needs not to converge to a unique equilibrium. The competitive equilibrium outcome is not always optimal.; Chapter Two examines whether different types of households place different values on non-market amenities. A discrete choice random utility model is estimated by employing information on wages, housing prices, household and housing characteristics and a range of attributes from all communities in California metropolitan areas in 1990. The information on the household's previous location, which is related to moving costs, and the possibility of wage variation across locations are incorporated. Results suggest that amenity preferences vary across demographic groups. Further, by using only recent movers, it is possible to show that the observed racial segregation pattern in California is partly driven by the preference for neighbors of the same ethnic/racial group.; Chapter Three investigates another aspect of mobility with regard to a specific policy change, namely California's Proposition 13. This proposition, approved in 1978, limits the property tax rate to one percent of the purchase price plus a small inflation adjustment. A large differential in property tax payments between long-term and short-term residents can create an incentive to stay put. This lock-in effect is examined by employing data from 1970--2000 California, Florida, and Texas Census. Results show that tenure length of California homeowners increased by about 1 year, relative to their counterparts in the comparison states. Households' responses to Proposition 13 also vary by migration status, racial group as well as the size of the subsidy.