Penn Institute for Urban Research
The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is dedicated to advancing cross-disciplinary urban-focused research, instruction, and civic engagement on issues relevant to cities around the world. As the global population becomes increasingly urban, understanding cities is vital to informed decision-making and public policy at the local, national, and international levels.
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Publication Why is Manhattan So Expensive? Regulation and the Rise in Housing Prices(2005-10-01) Glaeser, Edward L.; Gyourko, Joseph; Saks, RavenIn Manhattan, housing prices have soared since the 1990s. Although rising incomes, lower interest rates, and other factors can explain the demand side of this increase, some sluggishness in the supply of apartment buildings is needed to account for high and rising prices. In a market dominated by high-rises, the marginal cost of supplying more housing is the cost of adding an extra floor to any new building. Home building is a highly competitive industry with almost no natural barriers to entry, and yet prices in Manhattan currently appear to be more than twice their supply costs. We argue that land use restrictions are the natural explanation for this gap. We also present evidence that regulation is constraining the supply of housing in a number of other housing markets across the country. In these areas, increases in demand have led not to more housing units but to higher prices.Publication Does Increasing Women's Schooling Raise the Schooling of the Next Generation?(2002-03-01) Behrman, Jere R.; Rosenzweig, Mark R.Publication Public Shelter Admission among Young Adults with Child Welfare Histories by Type of Service and Type of Exit(2004-06-01) Metraux, Stephen; Park, Jung Min; Culhane, Dennis P.; Brodbar, GabrielThis study examines the prevalence and associated factors of New York City public shelter use among young adults with histories of out-of-home care or nonplacement preventive services as teenagers. The study finds that 19 percent of former child welfare service users entered public shelters within 10 years of exit from child welfare. Persons with out-of-home placement histories are twice as likely to enter public shelters (22 percent) as those who received nonplacement preventive services only (11 percent). Persons exiting child welfare through absconding from child welfare have the highest rate of shelter use, followed by those discharged to independent living.Publication Philadelphia Census of Congregations and Their Involvement in Social Service Delivery(2001-12-01) Cnaan, Ram A.; Boddie, Stephanie C.This census of congregational social services is the first attempt to identify all of the congregations in Philadelphia and their services. This article reports results from 1,376 of an estimated 2,095 congregations. It finds that 1,211 congregations (88 percent) have at least one social program. On average, each congregation provides 2.41 programs and serves 102 people per month. The primary beneficiaries are children (served by 49.2 percent of all programs). According to the census, 571 congregations (41.5 percent) collaborate with secular organizations, and 857 congregations (62.3 percent) are open to collaborating with government welfare programs. Conservatively, the financial replacement value of all congregational social services in Philadelphia is $246,901,440 annually.Publication Women's Schooling, Home Teaching, and Economic Growth(1999-08-01) Behrman, Jere R.; Foster, Andrew D.; Rosenzweig, Mark R.; Vashishtha, PremThe hypothesis that increases in the schooling of women enhance the human capital of the next generation and thus make a unique contribution to economic growth is assessed on the basis of data describing green revolution India. Estimates are obtained that indicate that a component of the significant and positive relationship between maternal literacy and child schooling in the Indian setting reflects the productivity effect of home teaching and that the existence of this effect, combined with the increase in returns to schooling for men, importantly underlies the expansion of female literacy following the onset of the green revolution.Publication Fiscal Impacts of the Proposed Beazer Projects Hopewell Township, New Jersey(2006-02-01) Wong, SidneyThis report examines the fiscal structure of Hopewell Township and its regional school district, and develops various types of demographic multipliers. It offers a concise discussion of methodologies of fiscal impact study. Using an improved average cost method and case studies, this report provides an assessment of the net fiscal effects of three proposed residential projects. It provides a discussion of the impacts of age-restricted development.Publication Public Development: Using Land as a Capital Resource(1992) Sagalyn, Lynne BPublication Who Lives Downtown Today (And Are They Any Different from Downtowners of Thirty Years Ago)?(2005-05-01) Birch, Eugenie L.The increase of housing in downtowns represents an important niche market that has evolved over time. During its development, levels of population, numbers and types of households, rates of homeownership, and downtowner demographic characteristics have changed. This paper documents the changes from 1970-2000 for 46 downtowns in 45 cities representing 19% of the nation’s cities with populations of 100,000 or more. It reports national, regional and individual city trends. It also offers comparisons of these features for the sample cities and their suburbs. While it outlines population changes, it highlights changes in households as the key to understanding downtown living. It records the concentration of downtown households in three places: the Northeast, the Midwest Circle and the California coast, and predicts that if high-growth-rate downtowns, including Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and Dallas, continue to increase at their 1990-2000 levels, they will join the current leaders. It argues that by 2000, five types of downtowns emerged distinguished by their varying degrees of growth, size, density and other characteristics. It concludes with a discussion of three policy concerns that emerge from the analysis revolving around development issues, demographics and market potential and density.Publication A Brief History of Race and the Supreme Court(2006-07-01) Kairys, DavidThis essay, based on a lecture sponsored by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, presents a brief history of the Supreme Court on race issues, from the Marshall Court to the present, beginning by focusing on Brown v. Board of Education and the development in the mid-1970s of a narrow purposeful discrimination rule that has made it near impossible for minority claims of discrimination to succeed.Publication Measuring Real Estate Returns When the City Acts as an Investor: Boston and Faneuil Hall Marketplace(1989-10-01) Sagalyn, Lynne BThe financial payback to the City of Boston from the development of Faneuil Hall Marketplace provides a starting point for analyzing the benefits of public-private downtown project development deals.