Economic activities are concentrated on a small share of inhabitable land. In our view, this
agglomeration is the outcome of a trade-off between increasing returns and transportation …

In this essay, we review the basic economics of housing supply and the functioning of US
housing markets to better understand the distribution of home prices, household wealth, and …

We propose an integrated framework to discuss the empirical literature on the local
determinants of agglomeration effects. We start by presenting the theoretical mechanisms …

How have house prices evolved over the long run? This paper presents annual house
prices for 14 advanced economies since 1870. We show that real house prices stayed …

A wide array of local government regulations influences the amount, location, and shape of
residential development. In this chapter, we review the literature on the causes and effects of …

I process satellite-generated data on terrain elevation and presence of water bodies to
precisely estimate the amount of developable land in US metropolitan areas. The data show …

We estimate the effects of interstate highways on the growth of US cities between 1983 and
2003. We find that a 10% increase in a city's initial stock of highways causes about a 1.5 …

The role of real estate during the global financial and economic crisis has prompted efforts to
better incorporate housing and financial channels into macro models, improve housing …

One can conceptualize a house as a bundle comprising a reproducible tangible structure
and a non-reproducible plot of land. When the value of a home is decomposed this way …

We estimate how households trade off immediate costs and uncertain future benefits that
occur in the very long run, 100 or more years away. We exploit a unique feature of housing …