Land and capital serve not only as factors of production but as assets which households use as stores of value. Standard trade models typically recognize only the first role. In its role as an asset land reduces the amount of national savings available for capital investment. Foreign investment...

Domestically and abroad, government policies aim to increase afforestation and provide the many environmental and social benefits that afforestation can deliver. For multiply-owned Māori land in Aotearoa New Zealand, decision-makers often face extra challenges that may hinder their ability to...

I study why some cities have strict land use regulation, how regulation affects the U.S. economy, and how policymakers can mitigate its negative consequences. I develop a quantitative spatial equilibrium model where local regulation is determined endogenously, by voting. Homeowners in productive...

Subsidizing homeownership makes cities decentralize, so Muth (1967) suggested over half a century ago, and so Voith (1999) and Glaeser (2011) have argued more recently. This paper provides a first quasi-experimental test of "Muth's hypothesis". We analyze a homeownership subsidy's effects on...

I study the welfare consequences of land use regulations for low- and high-skilled workers within a city. I use detailed geographic data for Cook County and Chicago in 2015-2016, together with a spatial quantitative model with two types of workers and real estate developers who face regulations....

Global population and income growth has driven the demand for agricultural land. This rapid conversion of land use to agriculture has affected the social and economic welfare of local communities within the landscape. Indonesia is a country that has recently undergone rapid land-use change due...

This Article considers sea level rise and land use adaptation strategies which balance safety and well-being with private property rights. Following the introduction in Part I, Part II provides background on the sea level rise problem and its projected acceleration. Part III describes physical...

This paper documents the relationship between staple crop price variability, export crop cultivation, and forest loss. Specifically, I test whether maize price variability affects households' cultivated farmland acreage. I use nationally-representative household panel data from Ghana to show...

Which is the tighter constraint on private sector investment: weak property rights or limited access to external finance? From a survey of new firms in post-communist countries, we find that weak property rights discourage firms from reinvesting their profits, even when bank loans are available....