Proceedings From the Conference on the Impact of Housing Affordability on Economic Development and Regional Labor Markets

Housing affordability is an important component of economic development. It affects several levers for regional growth, including business formation, through wealth building and influencing entrepreneurship. Housing affordability also affects location decisions—of both labor and employers. These proceedings document findings from research presented at a conference titled “The Impact of Housing Affordability on Economic Development and Regional Labor Markets” sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The analysis presented at the conference suggests that higher-cost housing can trigger productive workers to leave markets and may limit the ability of workers, especially African American workers, to enter the labor market. At the same time, large economic development projects can displace workers. Research suggests that land use regulation is a driver of housing affordability; typically, higher levels of regulation lead to higher costs. Also, the efforts of economic developers affect local policies, like regulation and zoning, to attract firms. Discussion at the conference suggested housing issues be more integral to economic development policy and that new and expanded measures of housing affordability be used to track affordability.

Determining Land Values from Residential Rents

The value of land is determined by the locations’ attractiveness and the degree of direct land use regulation. When regulations are binding, e.g., when a restriction on the maximum floor area ratio exists, the land price can be directly expressed as a function of the maximum floor area ratio and local amenities. We show theoretically and empirically how this approach can be used to determine land values from rental prices of residential structures built upon that land. From our empirical results, we derive two main sources for a monocentric structure of land prices. First, the location attractiveness of centrally located dwellings makes land prices more expensive. Second, as the maximum floor area ratio is high in central areas, the regulation works as a multiplier for land prices and inflates prices accordingly. Our model gives insights into the determinants of urban land prices and provides a useful approach for land appraisal in regions where land transactions are scarce.

Does Restricting the Entry of Formula Businesses Help Mom-and-Pop Stores? The Case of Small American Towns With Unique Community Character

Communities worldwide are increasingly introducing regulatory measures to protect independent businesses from chain stores, but the efficacy of these attempts is largely debated. Moreover, effects are likely to vary by the characteristics of the local economy, a consideration overlooked by existing studies. Using a sample of U.S. cities with unique community characteristics, the authors examine Formula Business Restrictions (FBR), a type of an American land use regulation that restricts the entry of “formula businesses.” The authors find that the passage of FBR led to a higher number and percentage of employees working in mom-and-pop businesses, which was primarily achieved by protecting existing ones from downsizing. This positive effect occurred over time with increasing magnitude. The authors also find heterogeneous effects on different sectors: FBR had strong positive effects on the retail sector, but not on the service sector. Findings suggest that chain store entry barriers can be beneficial for mom-and-pop businesses when designed carefully.

On-farm land use management of agricultural entities

The issues of land legislation in the field of regulation of land relations have been identified. It was determined that pre-reform period was characterized by the planned development of economy, on-farm land management design was mandatory and was of a directive nature. The author notes that the Rules for Rational Use of Agricultural Lands establish the existence of onfarm land management projects aimed at their rational use. The results of the analysis showed that currently in the land legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan there are no clear requirements for drafting projects in the system of measures on land use regulation. Therefore, in practice, they are developed by only a small part of economic entities, which leads to deterioration in reclamation state of agricultural land, decrease in fertility level, contamination of crops with weeds, spread of various diseases and plant pests, degradation of forage lands (pastures, hayfields), etc. All this is the result of underdeveloped land legislation, weak implementation of public control over the use and protection of land. The existing structure of on-farm land management projects has been analyzed. The conclusion on the need for their development, as well as methodological instructions based on new approaches and innovative technologies was done. It is noted that in 2018 at the legislative level, amendments were made to the Land Code, regulating the procedure and features of the provision of State-owned agricultural land for peasant or private farm operations, agricultural production through tender commission. Owners or land users were invited to develop on-farm land management projects at their own expense.

Conflicting Maps: How Legal Perspectives Could Minimize Zoning Cancellation in Republic of Korea

The purpose of this paper is to propose legal and policy enhancements that may prevent the cancellation of the legal force of zoning due to discord with the Korean Land Use Regulation Map (LURM) and secure legal stability. The legal force of zoning has been canceled because of the discordance of the LURM with past cadastral maps, and this has led to confusion regarding zoning decisions and even the postponement and cancellation of public projects. Here, the causes of LURM discordance and legal cancellation of zoning were identified and evaluated through judicial precedents. We found that improper use of data and adoption of tolerance caused the cancellations. To remedy these problems, we suggest the disclosure and application of cadastral computerized data instead of serial cadastral maps during LURM production activities to justify the legal adoption of allowable errors. We also recommend the widespread introduction of legal fiction for the rapid production of digital cadastral maps. Zoning cancellation could be minimized through such enhancements, and the map could allow people to visualize elements more conveniently. Moreover, this study aims to expand relevant legal mapping.

Jurisdictional Size and Residential Development: Are Large-Scale Local Governments More Receptive to Multifamily Housing?

In the United States, particularly in high-cost urban areas, local resistance to multifamily housing development has been widely noted. In many metropolitan areas, legal authority over land-use regulation is assigned to jurisdictions that often are very small, and some scholars argue that this small-scale local control institutionalizes neighborhood-level opposition to new construction. Using census tracts as units of analysis, we assess the relationship between the population size of the city, county, or township that regulates a tract’s land use and the change in multifamily units between two recent waves of the American Community Survey (2008–2012 and 2014–2018). Results of regression analysis indicate that larger jurisdictional population size is indeed associated with increased multifamily construction. However, the relationship applies only for jurisdictions with populations exceeding 100,000 and decays at jurisdictional populations of more than 1 million. This nonlinearity may reflect quasi-monopolistic land-use control in the largest jurisdictions.

Agribusiness in rural areas: Management Issues

The present article analyzes the trends determining the development of agribusiness in rural areas at the present stage of economic development, and highlights the new and most relevant features of its organization and management. At present, one of the important trends in the development of agribusiness in rural areas is the deepening process of production specialization with a simultaneous increase in the concentration of production and financial, industrial and commercial capital. The production specialization has an active influence on the structure of the sectors interacting in agribusiness in rural areas, which is manifested in the following situation. The size and number of agricultural enterprises is increasing and their number is gradually decreasing, while the total area of agricultural land owned by peasant (private) farms is gradually decreasing. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan, the total number of agricultural enterprises in 2007 was 751, including 607 profitable and 81 unprofitable ones. The overall profitability was 8.9 %. By 2018, the number of farms decreased to 486, out of which 443 were profitable, 43 unprofitable ones. The level of profitability for these farms was 9.6 %. Simultaneously with the decline in the number of agricultural enterprises, the population employed in agriculture was also declining. At the same time, in 2007, 104.9 thousand people were employed in agriculture, which equaled to 11 % of the rural population; by 2018, employment in agricultural activities decreased to 59.4 thousand people, which was 6.6 % of the rural population. With the deepening of specialization, the complexity in the organization and cooperation of activities in the agribusiness system has increased. Individual producers have lost their independence. They largely depend on related participants. In these conditions, the problem of centralized coordination and regulation arises and the role of administrative management is strengthened to ensure the coordination of specialized activities. In the food policy pursued by the state, an increasing number of agrarian business entities are forced to apply directly to the government for resolving certain issues related to land use regulation, environmental protection, etc.