

How modern zoning affects land value and incentivizes sprawl - jacobolus
http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-modern-zoning-affects-land-value.html

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brownbat
I like the zoning analysis on this blog and generally support the conclusions.

I worry the methodology in this post is a little fast and loose though.

For example, as we move to CASE 2, its stipulated that a supply constraint
artificially inflates prices of MFH and an oversupply artificially decreases
prices of SFH. That really depends on the sizes of the zones, it could easily
be flipped in some situations (maybe even as a tool to protect land values for
SFH or large homes...).

Would really be nice to see a blog on zoning economics with more citations to
academic journals, just as another check on the conclusions, or a path to
deeper study.

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jacobolus
That’s fair. But making a more realistic model would require quite a bit more
explanation.

The point seems to mostly be to make a little simple toy model which can be
used to explore some of the possible outcomes, and show some which might not
be obvious a priori. But it would be nice if he tried modifying the model in
various ways (e.g. in amount of land devoted to various zones, etc.) and
showing the results.

Or alternately, it would be nice to compare more comprehensively to concrete
real-world outcomes.

When this little experiment is seen in the context of the rest of the blog,
which has lots of analysis of specific neighborhoods around the world, it’s a
bit better balanced.

