We explore the effects of local economic conditions on the type and size of newly constructed housing units in a city. Exploiting the 1984–2004 metro area samples of the American Housing Survey and US Census building permit data from 1980 to 2018, we find that positive local income shocks (i) increase a city’s share of multi-family housing in new construction and (ii) trigger the construction of smaller units. These responses are driven by migration. Our findings are consistent with a modified open monocentric city model that more realistically assumes land is available for conversion into new housing throughout the city.

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1 May 2021

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Journal of Economic Geography 21(3) , pp.339-366, 2021

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DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lbaa015

https://academic.oup.com/joeg/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jeg/lbaa015/5998975?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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

This publication comes under the following theme: Housing