IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v58y2021i2p280-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining transit expenses in US urbanised areas: Urban scale, spatial form and fiscal capacity

Author

Listed:
  • Jerry Zhirong Zhao

    (University of Minnesota, USA)

  • Shengnan Lou

    (University of Minnesota, USA)

  • Camila Fonseca

    (University of Minnesota, USA)

  • Richard Feiock

    (Florida State University, USA)

  • Ruowen Shen

    (Wichita State University, USA)

Abstract

This research seeks to explain patterns of capital investment and operating expenses for urban transit systems in the United States. We isolate supply factors including urban scales, urban spatial form and financial capacity. Individual and group transit demands are accounted for by social and demographic characteristics including education level, immigrant populations, poverty levels, senior population and race. The results demonstrate that transit investments are super-linear to population, directly contradicting predictions of Bettencourt’s popular urban scale theory. Transit expenses are explained primarily by urban scales, urban spatial form and financial capacity, but demand forces such as poverty, car usage and political ideology have strong effects as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerry Zhirong Zhao & Shengnan Lou & Camila Fonseca & Richard Feiock & Ruowen Shen, 2021. "Explaining transit expenses in US urbanised areas: Urban scale, spatial form and fiscal capacity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 280-296, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:2:p:280-296
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019892582
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019892582
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098019892582?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Grisé, Emily & Maguire, Meadhbh & Veillette, Marie-Pier & Deboosere, Robbin & Berrebi, Emma & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2018. "Invest in the ride: A 14 year longitudinal analysis of the determinants of public transport ridership in 25 North American cities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 434-445.
    2. Gramlich, Edward M, 1994. "Infrastructure Investment: A Review Essay," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 1176-1196, September.
    3. Charles Lindsey & Simon Sheather, 2010. "Power transformation via multivariate Box–Cox," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(1), pages 69-81, March.
    4. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922, October.
    5. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "An Essay on Fiscal Federalism," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 22, pages 384-414, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. McDonald, John F., 1989. "Econometric studies of urban population density: A survey," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 361-385, November.
    7. Robert Hannay & Martin Wachs, 2007. "Factors influencing support for local transportation sales tax measures," Transportation, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 17-35, January.
    8. Alston, Lee J & Libecap, Gary D & Schneider, Robert, 1996. "The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 25-61, April.
    9. Eggertsson,Thrainn, 1990. "Economic Behavior and Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521348911, October.
    10. Luis Bettencourt & Geoffrey West, 2010. "A unified theory of urban living," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7318), pages 912-913, October.
    11. Yu Song & Guofan Shao & Xiaodong Song & Yong Liu & Lei Pan & Hong Ye, 2017. "The Relationships between Urban Form and Urban Commuting: An Empirical Study in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Krzysztof Cebrat & Maciej Sobczyński, 2016. "Scaling Laws in City Growth: Setting Limitations with Self-Organizing Maps," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Mark Lubell & Richard C. Feiock & Edgar E. Ramirez De La Cruz, 2009. "Local Institutions and the Politics of Urban Growth," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 649-665, July.
    14. Rajashree Kotharkar & Pankaj Bahadure & Neha Sarda, 2014. "Measuring Compact Urban Form: A Case of Nagpur City, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(7), pages 1-27, July.
    15. Shyr, Oliver F. & Andersson, David Emanuel & Cheng, Yu-Hsuan & Hsiao, Yu-Hsuan, 2017. "What explains rapid transit use? Evidence from 97 urbanized areas," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 162-169.
    16. Osung Kwon, 2006. "Local Decision-Making on Capital Spending in US Cities (1980–2000)," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 37-48, January.
    17. Weingast, Barry R, 1995. "The Economic Role of Political Institutions: Market-Preserving Federalism and Economic Development," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, April.
    18. Roy Bahl & Richard M. Bird, 2014. "Decentralization and Infrastructure: Principles and Practice," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1408, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    19. James Alm, 2015. "Financing Urban Infrastructure: Knowns, Unknowns, And A Way Forward," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 230-262, April.
    20. Erick Guerra & Robert Cervero, 2011. "Cost of a Ride," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 267-290.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiangyang Cao & Yishao Shi & Liangliang Zhou & Tianhui Tao & Qianqian Yang, 2021. "Analysis of Factors Influencing the Urban Carrying Capacity of the Shanghai Metropolis Based on a Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & McNab, Robert M., 2003. "Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1597-1616, September.
    2. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "Fiscal Competition and European Union: Contrasting Perspectives," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 10, pages 182-194, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Melle Marco C., 2014. "Eine europäische Bemessungsgrundlage für die Körperschaftsteuer? Konzeption und ordnungsökonomische Analyse / Conceptual design and constitutional economics analysis of a European tax base for corpora," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 133-156, January.
    4. Bin Dong & Benno Torgler, 2010. "The Causes of Corruption: Evidence from China," Working Papers 2010.72, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    5. Lars P. Feld & Horst Zimmermann & Thomas Döring, 2003. "Föderalismus, Dezentralität und Wirtschaftswachstum," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 72(3), pages 361-377.
    6. Thomas Döring & Jan Schnellenbach, 2011. "A tale of two federalisms: Germany, the United States and the ubiquity of centralization," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 83-102, March.
    7. Lars P. Feld, 2006. "Regulatory Competition and Federalism in Switzerland: Diffusion by Horizontal and Vertical Interaction," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-22, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    8. Lars P. Feld & Gebhard Kirchgässner & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2004. "Fiscal Federalism and Economic Performance: Evidence from Swiss Cantons," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200420, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    9. Lars P. Feld & Horst Zimmermann & Thomas Döring, 2004. "Federalism, Decentralization, and Economic Growth," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200430, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    10. Andreas P. Kyriacou & Leonel Muinelo-Gallo & Oriol Roca-Sagalés, 2015. "Regional inequalities, fiscal decentralization and government quality: empirical evidence from simultaneous equations," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 1501, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    11. Ichiro Aoki, 2008. "Decentralization and Intergovernmental Finance in Japan," Finance Working Papers 23074, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    12. Franz Sinabell & Hans Pitlik & Erwin Schmid, 2009. "Zukunft der Finanzierung und Ausgaben der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 36165, April.
    13. Prakash Chandra Jha, 2015. "Theory of fiscal federalism: an analysis," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 17(2), pages 241-259, October.
    14. Allers, Maarten & Merkus, Erik, 2013. "Soft budget constraint but no moral hazard? The Dutch local government bailout puzzle," Research Report 13014-EEF, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    15. Burret, Heiko T. & Feld, Lars P. & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2022. "Fiscal federalism and economic performance new evidence from Switzerland," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Lars P. Feld & Wolfgang Kerber, 2006. "Mehr-Ebenen Jurisdiktionssysteme: Zur variablen Architektur von Integration," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200605, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    17. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "Fiscal and Regulatory Competition: Theory and Evidence," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 11, pages 195-208, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Prakash Chandra, Jha, 2012. "Theory of Fiscal Federalism: An Analysis," MPRA Paper 41769, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Oct 2012.
    19. Lars P. Feld & Gebhard Kirchgässner & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2010. "Decentralized Taxation and the Size of Government: Evidence from Swiss State and Local Governments," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(1), pages 27-48, July.
    20. Deslatte, Aaron & Szmigiel-Rawska, Katarzyna & Tavares, António F. & Ślawska, Justyna & Karsznia, Izabela & Łukomska, Julita, 2022. "Land use institutions and social-ecological systems: A spatial analysis of local landscape changes in Poland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    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:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:2:p:280-296. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.