My research interest lies in the areas of public finance and economic geography (a.k.a. urban economics).
PAPERSInterwar Highways and the Demise of the General Store PDF
Abstract In the 1920s, the U.S. federal government strongly encouraged state highway construction with its Federal-Aid Highway program, resulting a dramatic increase in highway spending. The same decade saw a 32 percent decrease in general stores. Using a new county-level dataset, this paper offers evidence that highway construction may have accelerated the displacement of general stores. Specifically, a one standard deviation increase in highway spending would reduce the number of general stores by 13 percent. General stores in rural communities exhibit greater sensitivity to highway spending. To address non-random route placements, I propose an instrumental variable strategy based on a straight line minimum spanning tree network. The results speak to the decline of rural trade centers in the early twentieth century. Are PILOTs Property Taxes For Nonprofits? with James R. Hines Jr. and Jill R. Horwitz, Journal of Urban Economics. 94(2016) PDF
Abstract Nonprofit charitable organizations are exempt from most taxes, including local property taxes, but U.S. cities and towns increasingly request that nonprofits make payments in lieu of taxes (known as PILOTs). Strictly speaking, PILOTs are voluntary, though nonprofits may feel pressure to make them, particularly in high-tax communities. Evidence from Massachusetts indicates that PILOT rates, measured as ratios of PILOTs to the value of local tax-exempt property, are higher in towns with higher property tax rates: a one percent higher property tax rate is associated with a 0.2 percent higher PILOT rate. PILOTs appear to discourage nonprofit activity: a one percent higher PILOT rate is associated with 0.8 percent reduced real property ownership by local nonprofits, 0.2 percent reduced total assets, and 0.2 percent lower revenues of local nonprofits. These patterns are consistent with voluntary PILOTs acting in a manner similar to low-rate, compulsory real estate taxes. The road to better education: The effect of Interwar highways on education in the U.S. South PDF
Abstract Are highways and public schools complements or substitutes? Using county-level evidence from Georgia and Alabama in the 1920s, this study suggests they may be complements: highway spending is positively correlated with education spending, both in aggregate and on a per-pupil basis. Moreover, more highway spending seems to attract more investments in black schools from the Rosenwald Fund, a massive philanthropic program aiming at improving African American education through school-building. On the other hand, improvements in highways do not seem to contribute to the closing of the racial gap in education. More work is needed to better understand the mechanisms by which highway spending influenced education spending and educational outcomes. |