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This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. Essay 1 (with Olof Åslund and Matz Dahlberg): In this essay we investigate the impact of commuter train access on individual labor market outcomes. Our study considers the exogenous introduction of a commuter train linking locations in the northern part of Uppsala County (Sweden) to the regional employment center, considerably decreasing commuting times by public transit to the center for those living close to the pre-existing railroad. Using difference-in-differences matching techniques on comprehensive individual panel data spanning over a decade, our intention-to-treat estimates show that the reform had mainly no impact on the earnings and employment development among the affected individuals. Essay 2: In this essay I look into the role of public transit for residential sorting by studying how the introduction of a commuter train linking locations in the northern part of Uppsala County (Sweden) to the regional employment center affected migration patterns in the areas served. Using a difference-in-difference(-in-difference) approach and comprehensive individual level data, I find that the commuter train had a positive effect on overall in-migration to the areas served and no effect on the average out-migration rate from these areas. With regards to sorting based on labor market status, I find no evidence of sorting based on employment status but some evidence that the train introduction increased the probability of moving out of the areas served for individuals with high labor incomes relative to the probability for individuals with lower income. Considering sorting along other lines than labor market status, the analysis suggests that people born in non-western countries came to be particularly attracted towards the areas served by the commuter train as compared to other similar areas. Essay 3: In this essay I look into the relation between housing mix and social mix in metropolitan Stockholm (Sweden) over the period 1990-2008. Using entropy measures, I find that although the distribution of tenure types over metropolitan Stockholm became somewhat more even over the studied period, people living in different tenure types still to a large extent tended to live in different parts of the city in 2008. The degree of residential segregation was much lower between different population groups. I further find that the mix of family types, and over time also of birth region groups and income groups, was rather different between different tenure types in the same municipality. The mix of different groups however tended to be similar within different tenure types in the same neighborhood. While the entropy measures provide a purely descriptive picture, the findings thus suggest that tenure type mix could be more useful for creating social mix at the municipal level than for creating social mix at the neighborhood level. Essay 4 (with Matz Dahlberg): The last decade's immigration to western European countries has resulted in a culturally and religiously more diverse population in these countries. This diversification manifests itself in several ways, where one is through new features in the cityscape. Using a quasi-experimental approach, essay 4 examines how one such new feature, public calls to prayer, affects neighborhood dynamics (house prices and migration). The quasi-experiment is based on an unexpected political process that lead way to the first public call to prayer from a mosque in Sweden combined with rich (daily) information on housing sales. While our results indicate that the public calls to prayer increased house prices closer to the mosque, we find no evidence that the public calls to prayer served as a driver of residential segregation between natives and people born abroad around the mosque in question (no significant effects on migration behavior). Our findings are consistent with a story where some people have a willingness to pay for the possibility to more fully exert their religion which puts an upward pressure on housing in the vicinity of a mosque with public calls to prayer.

Defence date: 10 September 2020 (Online) ; Examining Board: Prof. Árpád Ábrahám (EUI and University of Bristol, Supervisor); Prof. Juan J. Dolado (University Carlos III Madrid); Prof. Lídia Farré (University of Barcelona); Prof. Nezih Guner (CEMFI) ; This dissertation analyses how the geographical sorting of individuals and households affects labour markets as well as gender and spatial inequality. In the first chapter, I show that labour force participation increases with city size for all demographic groups except for women with children, for whom it decreases, a phenomenon that I label Big City Child Penalty (BCCP). Both by means of empirical evidence and a quantitative spatial model of households, I show that the BCCP can be explained by commuting times, wages, and childcare price differentials between small and big cities as well as for unobserved heterogeneity in preferences for a stay-home parent. The second chapter of this dissertation highlights the role of delayed childbearing as an important driver of gentrification. While downtowns provide shorter commuting times and more consumption amenities, limited housing space and schools' worse quality reduce the value of this location choice when children are born. We exploit exogenous variation in the cost of postponing childbearing to obtain causal estimates of the impact of delayed maternity on gentrification. We find that enhanced access to assisted reproductive technologies in the state increases income downtown by 5.4% relative to the suburbs. The third chapter studies the relationship between trade and migration. Coinciding with a period of increasing trade integration, the educational composition of migrants within the European Union changed towards high-skilled workers. We build a two-country, two-sector general equilibrium model in which countries only differ in the productivity of high-tech workers. While price equalization, induced by trade integration, equalizes the real wages of non-educated workers, differences in the real wages of educated workers remain, since the latter are more productive in the most advanced country. As a consequence, factor mobility is needed to exhaust differences in real wages, leading to high-skilled emigration towards the most advanced country. ; 1. Mums and the City: Female Labour Supply and City Size -- 2. Delayed Birth and Gentrification -- 3. Free Trade and Labour Mobility

This dissertation explores three topics in Urban Economics and InternationalTrade. Chapter 1 measures the effect of transit access on neighborhood incomes byexploiting a quasi-experimental setting in Dallas. I show that income in neighborhoodsthat received rail access increases compared to neighborhoods that were promised toreceive access but did not receive it. The treatment effect is positively correlated withinitial neighborhood income and highlights the role of transit as an incubator for incomesegregation. Chapter 2 estimates the impact of international conflict on bilateral traderelations using several incidents of politically motivated boycotts. I find large reductionsin exports from the boycotted to the boycotting countries. Product-level results are in linewith intuition and most effective for consumer goods while having at most a temporaryeffect on intermediates and capital goods. Chapter 3 explores the usage of Landsatsatellite imagery for the measurement of economic outcomes at small geographies.

This thesis evaluates four French urban and regional policies. It also covers three major issues in urban economics: the impact of transportation on the spatial distribution of employment and population, the elasticity of housing supply and urban segregation. First, the thesis focuses on the Regional Express Rail system. The improvement of public transport in the Paris region causes employment to grow in suburban municipalities. However, there is not effect on overall population growth but a possible gentrification effect nearby RER stations. Secondly, this thesis studies the role of high-speed rail in the spatial organization of multi-plant businesses. It shows that the reduction in travel time to their headquarters subsidiaries lead the affiliate to specialize in production activities, to the expense of management tasks. Then, this work assesses the impact of the French Urban Enterprise Zones. The first generation of this program have a massive impact on firm location and employment. However, it only slightly benefited to the local residents, highlighting a lack of targeting. The last chapter evaluates the effect of housing allowance on the level of rents and the supply of rental housing. It confirms that housing subsidies cause private rents to increase. The elasticity of housing supply remains low in the long term, since the upward effect does not vanish and the quantity and the quality of rental housing do not adjust. ; Cette thèse porte sur l'évaluation de quatre politiques d'aménagement du territoire en France. Elle aborde également trois questions majeures de l'économie urbaine : l'influence des transports sur la localisation de l'emploi et de la population, l'élasticité de l'offre de logement et la ségrégation urbaine. La première politique publique étudiée est le Réseau express régional. Ainsi, l'amélioration des transports publics en Île-de-France a favorisé la croissance de l'emploi dans les communes de banlieue. Il n'y aurait en revanche pas de croissance globale de la population mais un possible ...

This thesis evaluates four French urban and regional policies. It also covers three major issues in urban economics: the impact of transportation on the spatial distribution of employment and population, the elasticity of housing supply and urban segregation. First, the thesis focuses on the Regional Express Rail system. The improvement of public transport in the Paris region causes employment to grow in suburban municipalities. However, there is not effect on overall population growth but a possible gentrification effect nearby RER stations. Secondly, this thesis studies the role of high-speed rail in the spatial organization of multi-plant businesses. It shows that the reduction in travel time to their headquarters subsidiaries lead the affiliate to specialize in production activities, to the expense of management tasks. Then, this work assesses the impact of the French Urban Enterprise Zones. The first generation of this program have a massive impact on firm location and employment. However, it only slightly benefited to the local residents, highlighting a lack of targeting. The last chapter evaluates the effect of housing allowance on the level of rents and the supply of rental housing. It confirms that housing subsidies cause private rents to increase. The elasticity of housing supply remains low in the long term, since the upward effect does not vanish and the quantity and the quality of rental housing do not adjust. ; Cette thèse porte sur l'évaluation de quatre politiques d'aménagement du territoire en France. Elle aborde également trois questions majeures de l'économie urbaine : l'influence des transports sur la localisation de l'emploi et de la population, l'élasticité de l'offre de logement et la ségrégation urbaine. La première politique publique étudiée est le Réseau express régional. Ainsi, l'amélioration des transports publics en Île-de-France a favorisé la croissance de l'emploi dans les communes de banlieue. Il n'y aurait en revanche pas de croissance globale de la population mais un possible effet de gentrification à proximité des stations. Dans un deuxième temps, cette thèse s'intéresse au rôle du train à grande vitesse dans l'organisation spatiale des entreprises multi-implantations. Il est établi que les filiales voyant le temps de parcours vers leur siège diminuer se spécialisent dans les activités de production. Cette création s'effectue au détriment des activités d'encadrement. Ensuite, ce travail évalue l'impact des zones franches urbaines. L'effet de première génération de ce dispositif sur la localisation des entreprises et sur l'emploi est massif. En revanche, il n'a que faiblement profité aux habitants de ces quartiers, soulignant un manque de ciblage de la mesure. Le dernier chapitre évalue l'effet des aides au logement sur le niveau des loyers et l'offre de logements locatifs. Il confirme que les aides au logement induisent une hausse des loyers privés. L'élasticité de l'offre de logements reste faible dans le long terme, puisque l'effet inflationniste perdure tandis que la quantité et la qualité des logements locatifs ne s'adaptent pratiquement pas.

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of important issues in urban and public economics. Chapter 1 notes that the Korean chonsei lease contract, in which the tenant provides a lump sum deposit equivalent to a large part of the housing value to the landlord for the contract period, is in effect a mortgage provided by the tenant to finance the landlord's housing investment. I presents a model for deriving the size of the equilibrium chonsei deposit by incorporating the default risk of chonsei for the first time. Chapter 2 explores the stringency of floor area ratio (FAR), one of the land use regulations in New York, and analyzes it by borough of New York. In particular, I overcome issues in previous studies by constructing a data set using publically available data through new methods. The results show that the FAR stringency in Manhattan is the highest in New York City and the stringency is lower as the distance from the center of the city increases. Chpater 3 analyzes the impact of receiving R&D grant on firms' receiving subsequent investment from venture capital (VC) using internal data of Korea's R&D grant program. We address sample selection and endogeneity issues that arise when estimating the impact of R&D policy through the matching method and instrument variable approach, respectively, using unique features of Korea's R&D grant programs. The results of our empirical analysis show that firms receiving R&D grants receive 10 to 15% less VC investment than firms that do not. Chapter 4 analyzes the impact of the financial costs of using innovation projects supported by government grants on firm's innovation project choice through game theory. Then, theoretical predictions are verified by using unique data. In particular, I utilize the quasi experimental environment brought about by the institutional characteristics of Korea's R&D grant program and estimate the effect of the cost difference faced by the firm on the type of innovation outcomes(product or process innovation) through the regression discontinuity design.

Today, 370 million people live in cities in earthquake prone areas and 310 million in cities with a high probability of tropical cyclones. By 2050 these numbers are likely to more than double, leading to a greater concentration of hazard risk in many of the world's cities. The authors discuss what sets hazard risk in urban areas apart, summarize estimates of valuation of hazard risk, and discuss implications for individual mitigation and public policy. The main conclusions are that urban agglomeration economies change the cost–benefit calculation of hazard mitigation; that good hazard management is first and foremost good general urban management; and that the public sector must perform better in promoting market-based risk reduction by generating and disseminating credible information on hazard risk in cities.

In order to assist governments in ensuring efficient housing markets and providing access to suitable housing conditions for all people, research about the functioning of housing markets is needed. My thesis, which is comprised of three essays that repre-sent the main chapters, contributes to the research on the economic processes that work within housing markets, especially with regard to challenges that arise from ur-ban concentration. In particular, I study the following research questions: • What are causes of vacancies in the housing market? • What are the effects of real estate transfer taxes on activity in the housing market? • What are the differences between counties in the provision of technical infra-structure? 1. Causes of Vacancies We summarize theoretical approaches, which may explain the mechanisms leading to vacancies under the assumptions of the standard market model, search and matching theory and behavioral economics. Concerning the latter, we propose a new frame-work to explain why and under which conditions homeowners are hesitant to sell their dwellings, which may lead to vacancies. In this framework, we highlight the fact that even if buyers and sellers are homogenous individuals, their willingness to pay differs depending on market developments. Under the assumptions of the standard market model, we hypothesize that vacancies only arise if the market price equals the suppliers' minimum price. Next to that, we identify the following factors that could explain an increase in vacancies: Greater market power, higher heterogeneity between dwellings, low holding costs of dwellings, high list prices, a high share of small dwell-ings, less intermediaries and a shorter mandatory period of notice of tenants. Despite the wide range of models explaining vacancies, there is need for new theoretical frameworks. We evaluate the identified hypotheses in the theoretical literature by comparing them with the results found in the empirical studies. Some hypotheses have either been in-vestigated by the empirical literature only to a limited degree or have not been inves-tigated at all. Next to the positive analysis of the mechanisms that cause vacancies, we need to pose the normative question, if and under which circumstances vacancies should be considered problematic. Vacancies in the short run may be a necessity in a search and matching context to reach an efficient market outcome; i.e., to offer poten-tial buyers a heterogeneous pool of options to choose from and to fit their individual needs. Additionally, with the assumptions of behavioral economics, an owner of a vacant dwelling might find greater pleasure in speculating with the object than a buyer would enjoy living in it. However, vacancies could indicate a welfare loss if caused by a monopoly that artificially reduces the housing supply on a market. A reduction of information asymmetry could reduce vacancies and increase welfare. 2. Effects of Real Estate Transfer Taxes German states can set their own real estate transfer tax rates. To date, the real estate transfer tax rates range between 3.5% and 6.5%. Although the tax rates do not seem to be particularly high, the tax results in a relatively high tax amount to be paid; even small changes in the tax rate may cause buyers to accelerate a planned transaction to pay a lower tax rate. In our empirical analysis of different German states, we estimate that a one-percentage-point increase in the transfer tax produces significant anticipation effects for the month just before a tax is increased (about 43% more transactions before and 44% less after) and yields approximately 6% fewer overall transactions and therefore much lower market activity. We show that in many cases, the former first-best option – to buy or sell a single-family home – is apparently no longer the optimal choice. Thus, we expect ownership rates to decrease as letting apartments becomes more attractive than selling. This questions the wisdom of real estate transfer tax increases when other political measures that attempt to support homeownership creation are in place. Addi-tionally, retired households, which tend to stay in houses that are too large after their children have left, could be discouraged from downsizing to their actual needs. Indi-viduals may forgo better job offers in other regions or accept longer commutes, which can have negative consequences on urban labor markets. 3. Efficiency of County Road Provision When houses in urban areas are expensive, an adequate road network allows residents to locate further away from agglomeration centers. This takes pressure off housing prices and infrastructure systems in cities and supports housing markets in rural areas. I use the example of county roads to study whether counties differ in their efficiency of the provision of infrastructure. Efficiency refers to the use of economic resources (input) in the most technologically efficient manner to produce a certain amount of output. Studies on the efficient provision of roads incorporated the 'quantity' of roads (e.g., the length of the road network) and the 'quality' of roads (e.g., an index that measures road condition) as the relevant output indicators. I address two major problems of previous studies. First, to measure the quality of roads, I acquired new and improved data on road condition by county governments. Second, I focus on the data referring to a road network of approximately the same age. An old road network asks for more frequent maintenance and thus higher costs. Therefore, it is possible that governments with an older road network in their region could be identified as less efficient than governments with a newer road network, even if they do not actually employ their financial resources in a less efficient manner. The results of my study indicate that there are substantial efficiency differences and efficiency reserves in the provision of roads in eastern German counties: Depending on the specification, in the median county, the same level of outputs (i.e., area of roads and road condition) could be achieved using 48% to 70% fewer inputs (i.e., expendi-tures). I also find that my results differ greatly from existing studies applying proxy data for the quality of roads (e.g., the number of accidents).

Derzeit versucht eine Initiative verschiedener Organisationen, im Rahmen einer Petition für eine Erhöhung der Strafen für Falschparken zu werben. Der vorliegende Beitrag nimmt dies zum Anlass, die Hintergründe des Vorhabens ökonomisch zu analysieren. Dafür bietet sich die Theorie unerwünschter Handlungen an. Neben der gegenwärtigen Diskussion um höhere Strafen, zeigt der Beitrag anhand der ökonomischen Theorie auf, welche Parameter von staatlicher Seite genutzt werden können, um die Entscheidung eines potentiellen Falschparkers in die gewünschte Richtung zu lenken. Dies sind insbesondere die Entdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit, die Strafart, die Strafhöhe sowie die Gewissenskosten des potentiellen Falschparkers. Auf modelltheoretischer Ebene werden einerseits das Verhalten des potentiellen Falschparkers und andererseits das Verhalten der Kommune diskutiert. Der Aufsatz liefert insofern einen Beitrag zur Stadtökonomik und zeigt verkehrspolitische Implikationen auf. ; Currently, an initiative of various organizations is trying to promote an increase in penalties for illegal parking as part of a petition. This article takes this as an opportunity to analyze the economic background of the project. Here the theory of crime offers itself. In addition to the current discussion about higher fines, the paper uses economic theory to show which parameters can be influenced by the state to steer the decision of a potential parking offender in the desired direction. These are, in particular, the probability of detection, the amount of the penalty, the type of penalty as well as the costs of the potential parking offender's conscience. On a model-theoretical level, the behavior of the potential parking offender on the one hand and the behaviour of the municipality on the other hand are discussed. The paper thus contributes to urban economics and shows the implications for transport policy.

International audience ; The contribution of Roberto Camagni to urban economics is impressive and really original. In her introduction to this book, Roberta Capello underlines his "constant endeavor to highlight the active role of space in economic phenomena". I want to express a complementary line of argument from a geographer's perspective.

International audience ; The contribution of Roberto Camagni to urban economics is impressive and really original. In her introduction to this book, Roberta Capello underlines his "constant endeavor to highlight the active role of space in economic phenomena". I want to express a complementary line of argument from a geographer's perspective.

International audience ; The contribution of Roberto Camagni to urban economics is impressive and really original. In her introduction to this book, Roberta Capello underlines his "constant endeavor to highlight the active role of space in economic phenomena". I want to express a complementary line of argument from a geographer's perspective.

Over the years, demands for education have become progressively more insistent, more persuasive and complex. The kind of education given impinges on society in a variety of ways to meet an ever-widening range of needs. This research is to examine the effect of rural-urban migration on education and economic development with reference to Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo State. The man and specific motives are to find out the causes of rural-urban migration how it affects the students' performance and aimed at examining its effect on productivity level of Ibarapa East Local Government Area. The instrument used for collecting the data is the questionnaire. Hypotheses were formulated, whereas simple percentage methods were used to analyze the data. The finding shows that there are the different impacts of rural-urban migration on education and development of Ibarapa East Local Government causes short fall of the labour force, short of qualified and low productivity especially in the agricultural sector. Rural-urban migration contributes to the high rate of unemployment. It increases the number of juvenile delinquencies crimes and other social vices in the society, and it has effect on the educational development of the study area. Based on all the findings, recommendation was made that the government should provide social and infrastructural facilities such as good road network, regular supply of electricity and so on for rural dwellers. And also with the various youth programs, it could be possible to reduce rural-urban migration, most especially when the young ones are exposed to sustainable livelihood activities that they could embark upon.

This thesis revolves around some central aspects of the empirical spatial economics literature, which studies the influence of space on economic relationships. The article in Chapter 2, titled "Exports and Olympic Games: Is There a Signal Effect?", deals with the potential effects of hosting the Olympic Games on countries' exports. In contrast to earlier contributions, the article shows that hosting or applying for the Olympic Games does not necessarily has a positive and lasting effect on countries' exports. Specifically, this Olympic effect vanishes, once the Olympic hosts are compared to appropriate control groups such as the OECD countries, and not to all remaining countries of the world. The article in Chapter 3, titled "Nuclear Accidents and Policy: Notes on Public Perception", analyzes the effects of the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011 and the subsequent nuclear phase-out decision on the subjective perception in Germany. Subjective perception is captured through several independent items from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), including concerns about the environment and concerns about the reliability of nuclear energy. While the accident increases the probability to be worried about the environment, the phase-out decision decreases the worries about the security of nuclear energy. These effects are interrelated with the distance between the respondents' place of residence and the nearest nuclear facility. In Chapter 4 the article titled "Urban Renewal after the Berlin Wall: a place-based Policy Evaluation" evaluates a $2.3 Bn. urban renewal program designed to promote the recovery of 22 neighborhoods in Berlin, Germany. Such programs have become established instruments to mitigate the negative effects of urban decline. The study employs a quasi-experimental research design by comparing housing prices in the target areas over 20 years to various control groups, including areas with similar preconditions which were ultimately not selected for the policy and structurally similar transactions based on propensity score matching. The results show, that the policy was effective in increasing the housing stock quality in the target areas. Compared to similar areas not targeted by the policy, the share of building in bad condition decreased by 25% over the program period, and the value increased by over 50%. There is, however, no evidence that this is a causal effect. Also, there is no evidence for any external effects, which is astonishing given that such housing externalities are often used to justify the expenses for similar policies. Finally, there is evidence that the evaluation of place-based policies is sensitive to unobserved local differences, especially when there are but a few treatment or control areas. The article in Chapter 5, titled "Winner Picking in Urban Revitalization Policies - Empirical Evidence from Berlin", evaluates whether local authorities strategically pick winners when selecting the targets for urban revitalization policies. The chapter analyzes the selection process leading to the designation of five large urban revitalization areas in Berlin, Germany. The article estimates the influence of long-term trends in two key attributes – the unemployment rate and the share of residents of immigrant background – on the probability of being selected as a target area, while holding the current levels of these attributes constant. The results are as expected: local authorities, while choosing from a pool of areas with high levels of unemployment, prefer areas which show first signs of a recovery or a gentrification process. This effect is interpreted as winner picking. In summary, the results of this thesis show that it is crucial to take spatial aspects into account when evaluating economic relationships, especially in an urban or regional context. It also becomes obvious, that conventional estimates might be biased in face of spatial dependence, and that quantitative spatial methods can help reducing this bias. In the light of the thematic broadness and the complexity of the quantitative spatial economics literature, these results help to explain the current dissemination of spatial methods into the applied economics literature. ; Diese Dissertation diskutiert in vier Artikeln einige zentrale Aspekte der angewandten räumlichen Ökonomie, die den Einfluss von Raum auf ökonomische Zusammenhänge untersucht. Der Artikel in Kapitel 2 mit dem Titel "Exports and Olympic Games: Is There a Signal Effect?" diskutiert mögliche Effekte des Ausrichtens von olympischen Sommerspielen auf die Höhe der Exporte eines Landes. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Beiträgen zeigt er, dass das Ausrichten oder das Bewerben für olympische Spiele nicht notwendigerweise einen positiven und langfristigen Effekt auf die Exportmenge eines Landes hat. Dieser olympische Effekt verschwindet insbesondere dann, wenn man die ausrichtenden Länder nicht allen anderen Ländern gegenüber stellt, sondern eine angemessenere Kontrollgruppe wählt, wie etwa die OECD-Staaten. Der Artikel in Kapitel 3 mit dem Titel "Nuclear Accidents and Policy: Notes on Public Perception" analysiert die Effekte des Nuklearunfalls in Fukushima in 2011 und der darauffolgenden Entscheidung über den Atomausstieg auf die individuelle Wahrnehmung in Deutschland. Die subjektive Wahrnehmung wird über verschiedene Items des deutschen sozio-ökonomischen Panels (SOEP) abgebildet, darunter die Sorgen über die Umwelt und die Sorgen über die Sicherheit von Nuklearkraftwerken. Während der Unfall zu einem signifikanten Anstieg der Sorgen über die Umwelt führt, senkt die darauffolgende Entscheidung über den Atomausstieg die Sorgen bezüglich der Sicherheit von Atomkraftwerken. Diese Effekte sind zu einem gewissen Grad abhängig von der Entfernung, die zwischen dem Wohnort der befragten Person und dem nächstgelegenen Atomkraftwerk liegt. In Kapitel 4 evaluiert der Artikel mit dem Titel "Urban Renewal after the Berlin Wall: a place-based Policy Evaluation" ein $2.3 Mrd. teures Stadterneuerungsprogramm, welches die Aufwertung von 22 Vierteln in Berlin, Deutschland, zum Ziel hat. Die Studie greift auf ein quasiexperimentelles Forschungsdesign zurück, indem es Immobilienpreise in den Zielgebieten über 20 Jahre mit der Entwicklung in verschiedenen Kontrollgruppen vergleicht. Diese Kontrollgruppen beinhalten Untersuchungsgebiete, die ursprünglich auch als Zielgebiet vorgesehen waren, sowie strukturell ähnliche Gebiete, die auf Propensity Score Matching basieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Politikmaßnahme zu einer erhöhten Qualität des Immobilienbestands in den Zielgebieten geführt hat. Im Vergleich zu ähnlichen Gebieten, die nicht Ziel der Politikmaßnahme waren, hat sich der Anteil an Gebäuden in schlechtem Zustand über den Zeitraum der Studie um 25% verringert, während sich der Wert um bis zu 50% gesteigert hat. Die Ergebnisse deuten aber auch darauf hin, dass es sich nicht um einen kausalen Zusammenhang handelt.Schließlich gibt es Hinweise, dass die Evaluierung von ortsgebundenen Politikmaßnahmen zu einem großen Teil von unbeobachteten lokalen Unterschieden abhängt, besonders wenn es nur wenige Ziel- oder Kontrollgebiete gibt. Der Artikel in Kapitel 5 mit dem Titel "Winner Picking in Urban Revitalization Policies – Empirical Evidence from Berlin" untersucht, ob lokale Verwaltungen strategisch potenzielle Gewinner bevorzugen, wenn sie die Zielgebiete für Stadterneuerungsprogramme bestimmen. Die Studie analysiert den Auswahlprozess, der zur Ausweisung von fünf großen Stadterneuerungsgebieten in Berlin, Deutschland, führt. Sie schätzt dafür den Effekt von langfristigen Trends von zwei zentralen Attributen – der Arbeitslosenquote sowie dem Anteil von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund – auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit, als Zielgebiet ausgewählt zu werden. Aktuelle Level dieser zwei Attribute werden dabei konstant gehalten. Die Ergebnisse entsprechen den Erwartungen: Ausgehend von einer Gruppe mit relativ hoher aktueller Arbeitslosigkeit, werden Gebiete bevorzugt, die einen positiven Trend oder den Beginn eines Gentrifikationsprozesses vorweisen können. Dieser Effekt wird als Winner Picking interpretiert. Zusammenfassend zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation die Wichtigkeit, räumliche Aspekte bei der Analyse von ökonomischen Zusammenhängen nicht unberücksichtigt zu lassen, besonders in einem urbanen oder regionalen Kontext. Es wird offensichtlich, dass konventionelle Schätzergebnisse in Gegenwart von räumlicher Korrelation verzerrt sein können und dass quantitative räumliche Methoden helfen können, diese Verzerrung zu mindern. Angesichts der thematischen Breite und der Komplexität der quantitativen räumlichen Ökonomie helfen diese Ergebnisse, die immer größere Verbreitung von räumlichen Methoden in der allgemeinen angewandten ökonomischen Literatur zu erklären.

The paper will elaborate on the current situation and development perspectives in selected Croatian historic towns, reflecting upon innovative models of urban regeneration and social revitalization. Looking for new urban models in the challenging global context, the authors applied the concept of cultural economy or the economics of uniqueness, which connects sustainable urban development with strategic mobilisation of unique local cultural resources. As a case study, the current situation in the cities of Pula and Šibenik (Croatia) was elaborated, which are characterized by the transition from former military and industrial urban models to cultural tourism destinations.