Regional Housing Supply Elasticity in Spatial Equilibrium Growth Analysis

The spatial equilibrium growth model of Glaeser and Tobio (2008) is built upon the traditional static Rosen-Roback spatial equilibrium model. A distinguishing feature is the addition of a regionally-varying elasticity of housing supply, which was found empirically for the U.S. in a number of studies. Applications of the framework have been limited. But it is sufficiently flexible to be used in a wide variety of settings. Numerous policies and site characteristics of areas have the potential to simultaneously influence household amenity demand, firm productivity and elasticity of housing supply. The spatial equilibrium growth model not only ascertains the growth effects of policies and site characteristics, but it also assesses the channels through which they affect regional growth.