The Fiscal Impacts of Urban Sprawl: Evidence from U.S. County Areas

Sprawl
Expenditures
Fiscal impact

Christopher B. Goodman (2019) “The Fiscal Impacts of Urban Sprawl: Evidence from U.S. County Areas.” Public Budgeting & Finance 39 (4): 3-27., doi: 10.1111/pbaf.12239

Author
Affiliation

Northern Illinois University

Published

December 2019

Doi

Abstract

This paper examines the fiscal impacts of urban development patterns in the United States. Previous studies have indicated that it is costly to provide public services in areas with low‐density, spatially expansive development, leading to higher per capita expenditures. However, theory would suggest alternate outcomes. This paper examines this question using a panel dataset of U.S. urban county areas and a specification allowing for potential nonlinearity between development patterns and per capita expenditures. Estimates indicate that the spatial extent of development is the most important factor in expenditures; it is less costly to provide public services when development is more compact. Higher density increases per capita expenditures; however, the effects are small.

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{goodman2019,
  author = {Christopher B. Goodman},
  title = {The Fiscal Impacts of Urban Sprawl: Evidence from {U.S.}
    County Areas},
  journal = {Public Budgeting \& Finance},
  volume = {39},
  number = {4},
  pages = {3 - 27},
  date = {2019},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbaf.12239},
  doi = {10.1111/pbaf.12239},
  langid = {en}
}