IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bba/j00001/v4y2025i1p107-123d348.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Policy Relevance of Urban Scaling Laws: A Study on Impervious Ground in German Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Rolf Bergs

    (PRAC Bergs & Issa Partnership Co., Im Hopfengarten 19b, 65812 Bad Soden, Germany)

Abstract

The expansion of urban infrastructure is an important indicator of agglomeration and a major factor in the deterioration of the urban environment. The investment in urban infrastructure is accompanied by the sealing of ground. The implementation of effective policies to reduce the practice of sealing ground is impeded by the existence of conflicting interests and fiscal disincentives. A significant challenge is the dearth of policy-relevant information. Conventional analysis considers urban outcome indicators in proportion to population and neglects non-linear distribution patterns, thus obscuring global regularities that contain important information. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of urban imperviousness through the lens of urban scaling. The present study employs Germany as a case study to examine the extent to which the parameters of the scaling function differ between two types of cities. District Affiliated Cities (DACs) and Administrative City Districts (ACDs), which are afforded greater fiscal autonomy. The analysis indicates that the amount of sealed land exhibited a notable increase between 2006 and 2018 in the ACDs. Calibration of the scaling functions for cities with the actual coefficient of the DAC control estimate and a global orientation exponent (5/6) resulted in a 16% reduction of sealed ground. In conclusion, urban scaling laws offer a valuable tool for analyzing the complex dynamics of urban imperviousness and its control costs, thereby contributing to the formulation of more effective urban policies and planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Rolf Bergs, 2025. "The Policy Relevance of Urban Scaling Laws: A Study on Impervious Ground in German Cities," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 4(1), pages 107-123, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:107-123:d:348
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/92/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/4/1/92
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:107-123:d:348. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ramona Wang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.anserpress.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.