We study the extent to which US urban development is sprawling and what determines differences in sprawl across space. Using remote-sensing data to track the evolution of land use on a grid of 8.7 billion 30 x 30 metre cells, we measure sprawl as the amount of undeveloped land surrounding an average urban dwelling. The extent of sprawl remained roughly unchanged between 1976 and 1992, although it varied dramatically across metropolitan areas. Ground water availability, temperate climate, rugged terrain, decentralized employment, early public transport infrastructure, uncertainty about metropolitan growth, and unincorporated land in the urban fringe all increase sprawl.

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1 May 2006

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The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(2) , pp.587-633, 2006

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DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2006.121.2.587

https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/121/2/587/1884022

This Journal article is published under the centre's Urban programme.