Spatially Delineated Public Goods and Spatially Located Public Bads: A Hedonic Approach to Measuring Urban Revitalization

A regression discontinuity approach is used to measure the impact of public-goods creating programs in a declining inner city neighborhood of Worcester Massachusetts. Using GIS data, we develop a hedonic model of residential sales, using a parcel-level GIS tax assessment and land use database linked to property sales data for the years 1988 through 2007, to test the effect of the creation of a new high-performing public school, as well as other locational amenities and disamenities on neighborhood housing prices, by comparing properties adjacent to either side of the school catchment area boundary.