"Is Accra a Superstar City?"

I am a sucker for an interesting paper title. Today's paper that caught the eye is urban economics related. If Matthew Kahn can post almost exclusively about cities on his "green economics" blog then I am sure I can get away with it.

This is the sort of question that demands an answer (and for a some will involve dusting off the atlas to see where the Accra is). Don't be afraid to admit it.

The first thing that comes to mind is where did the data come from and what is the quality. This remains a concern. Also taking a US based methodology to an African city is problematic.

Unfortunately the abstract does not live up to the title. Where is the mention of celebrities and rock stars?

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Is Accra a Superstar City?

ROBERT M. BUCKLEY
World Bank
ASHNA S. MATHEMA
World Bank - Policy Research Department December 1, 2007

World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4453

Abstract:
A recent study of house price behavior in U.S. cities by Gyourko, Mayer, and Sinai (2006) raises questions about so-called superstar cities in which housing is so inelastically supplied that it becomes unaffordable, as higher-income families outbid residents. We consider the case of Accra, Ghana, in this light, estimating the elasticity of housing supply and discussing the implications for growth and income distribution. There is not a great deal of data available to examine trends in Accra, so our method is indirect. First, we use a variant of the traditional monocentric city model to calculate the elasticity of Accra's housing supply relative to those of other similarly-sized African cities. This suggests that housing supply responsiveness is much higher elsewhere. This muted supply responsiveness is consistent with the observed higher housing prices. Second, we estimate a number of traditional housing demand equations and reduced form equations. Placing a number of restrictions on the equations allows us to infer Accra's housing supply elasticity. Taken together, our approaches suggest that lower-income families in Accra have such poor housing conditions because the market is extremely unresponsive to demand. Although the outcomes we have traced - high housing prices and low quality - are not unusual relative to the other developed country superstar cities, they are extreme. The welfare costs are considerable, so much so that in addition to direct housing market effects, these policies also appear to have potentially significant implications for the achievement of more equitable growth.

Keywords: Economic Theory & Research, Housing & Human Habitats, Banks & Banking Reform, Public Sector Management and Reform

Working Paper Series

Suggested Citation

Buckley, Robert M. M. and Mathema, Ashna S., "Is Accra a Superstar City?" (December 1, 2007). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4453

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Does Pollution Increase School Absences?

A "must read" paper.

My continuing gripe is that US data are so much better than we have in Europe otherwise this is the sort of study that we would like to do. Anyone who has equivalent UK or EU data should drop us a line.

Does Pollution Increase School Absences?
Janet Currie, Eric Hanushek, E. Megan Kahn, Matthew Neidell, Steven Rivkin

Abstract

We examine the effect of air pollution on school absences using unique administrative data for elementary and middle school children in the 39 largest school districts in Texas. These data are merged with information from monitors maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency. To control for potentially confounding factors, we adopt a difference-in-difference-in differences strategy, and control for persistent characteristics of schools, years, and attendance periods in order to focus on variations in pollution within school-year-attendance period cells. We find that high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) significantly increase absences, even when they are below federal air quality standards.

H/T: Borjas Blog

"Light Pollution Conference": Do we want to reclaim the night?

A little off beat for this blog but with urban sprawl the problem of light pollution is growing. Is it a problem? I suspect more research needs to be done looking at the psychological effects of the 24 hour lit society.

One phrase I heard this morning was a complaint about the "Rottweiler security lights" that are increasing being stuck onto the sides of houses to blind would be burglars (or simply to show them the way in).

Conference on light pollution

An NSCA conference, entitled 'Tackling light - can we reclaim night?' and all about light pollution and managing its impacts, will be held this week on 14th February at the Institute of Physics, London W1:

Our increasingly 24 hour economy calls for more lighting for longer - for amenity, safety, decoration and entertainment. However, excessive or misdirected light impacts on the local and wider environment.

Since the inclusion of light in nuisance legislation1, NSCA is experiencing increasing enquiries from local authorities and the public concerned about lighting - however most transport facilities - often a source of intrusive lighting - remain outside the law. This topical conference brings together professionals with the expertise to address these concerns.

At Light Pollution, Managing the Impacts, delegates will learn more about impacts of inappropriate or excessive light and current and future legislative and technical options for managing that impact. It provides an opportunity to support work towards the integration of lighting into policy making at local and national level.

Crematorium Location: The Dead that Keep on Killing

Another irresistible news item that has good economic insights related to the age old problem of NIMBYism. It should be simple enough to find a market solution to the problem of where to locate crematoriums. It is also impressive how the collective action of local communities can block the development of perceived "pollution intensive industries"....

One might even suggest that money invested in a public health message to "clean teeth" would have a long term beneficial effect over and above the utility gained from not have to sit in a chair while someone in a white coat attacks you with a drill.

Notoriously, UK citizens are famed for their poor teeth relative to the average US citizen (or is that just a myth) - if true then the problem may be a lot more severe for us in the UK. We deserve to be told.

Communities Fight Crematorium Expansion

RICHMOND, Calif. -- Plans to build new crematoriums are running into resistance around the country over a fear some scientists say is overblown: toxic emissions, especially mercury fumes from incinerating dental fillings.

Silver fillings contain mercury, a substance that can harm brain development in children. Mercury from industrial plants has found its way into rivers, lakes and oceans, tainting many types of seafood.

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"You're burning bodies, and the emissions are going up into the air," said community leader Johnny White. "They can put it somewhere else, away from where people live."

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates crematoriums emit 320 pounds of mercury per year, while activists say the real figure could be as high as three tons.

Now for some great 101 Economics - it is all about supply and demand. The supply of dead bodies is outstripping supply of processing space.

Just 6 percent of Americans were cremated in 1975. By 2004, 31 percent -- or 741,000 people -- chose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America. California leads the country with 122,000 cremations performed in 2004.

People are choosing cremation because it is less expensive and is perceived as more eco-friendly, since land is not used for burial, industry officials say.

The soaring popularity of cremation is driving demand for more crematoriums. There are currently more than 1,800 in the U.S., and about 200 new ones are built each year.

You couldn't make it up:

The Neptune Society of Northern California ran into unexpectedly fierce opposition in Richmond when it proposed a crematorium that would incinerate more than 3,000 bodies a year within two blocks of a daycare center and children's park. Facing protesters carrying banners reading "Over my dead body," the City Council voted in July to deny the necessary zoning change.

The result is the chilling conclusion:

"When the current generation of baby boomers passes away, we're the ones that are going to put the most mercury in the atmosphere," said John Reindl, a recycling manager in Dane County, Wis., who has researched the issue. "Now's the time when we really need to handle this issue."