Urban Revival in America, 2000 to 2010 / Victor Couture, Jessie Handbury.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Couture, Victor.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Handbury, Jessie.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24084.

NBER working paper series no. w24084

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2017.

Summary:

This paper documents and explains the striking rise in the proclivity of college-educated individuals to reside near city centers since 2000. We show that this recent urban revival is driven almost entirely by younger college graduates in larger cities. With a residential choice model, we quantify the role of jobs, amenities, and house prices in explaining this trend. We find that the rising taste of young college graduates for non-tradable service amenities like restaurants and nightlife accounts for more than 40 percent of their movement toward city centers. Complementary data shows a corresponding rise in young college graduate expenditures on and trips to non-tradable services. We then link changes in both consumption and urbanization to secular trends of top income growth and delayed family formation amongst young college graduates.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2017.