A significant fraction of GDP is generated by implicit expenditures on spatially varying nonmarket amenities such as climate, public goods, urban infrastructure, and pollution. People pay for these amenities indirectly, through spatial variation in housing prices, wages and property taxes. In this paper we construct a new database of 75 amenities, match it to location choices made by 5 million ...

In this paper, I analyze the setting of ticket prices when teams receive subsidization from the public. I model teams as entertainment providers, where entertainment is generated by selling wins and amenities. I argue that subsidization of teams generally comes from subsidizing the amenities in and surrounding the teams’ stadiums. Subsidization of the amenities lowers the marginal cost of provi...

While older people live in developing countries, little is known about the relative importance of features of their communities in influencing their liveability. We examine components of home and neighbourhood among older South Africans. Linear regression analyses revealed that features of home (basic amenities, household composition, financial status and safety) and neighbourhood (ability to s...

Urban green spaces provide an array of benefits, or ecosystem services, that support our physical, psychological, and social health. In many cases, however, these benefits are not equitably distributed across diverse urban populations. In this paper, we explore relationships between cultural ecosystem services provided by urban green space and the social determinants of health outlined in the U...

In an economy with multiple consumption goods (including environmental amenities) that uniquely maximizes the present value of utility with constant discounting, constant or falling augmented green net national product, or zero or negative augmented net investment, at any time implies that the economy is unsustainable then. "Augmented" means that time is included as a productive stock, which in...

This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical and methodological framework clarifying the relationship between non-market environmental valuation techniques, in particular hedonic and life-satisfaction methods. The paper shows how life-satisfaction scores can be used to test correctly the equilibrium condition in location markets required by the hedonic approach and that in the absence of equ...

In recent years, economists have started using socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics to explain self-reported individual happiness or satisfaction with life. Using data disaggregated at the individual and regional level, this paper shows that while these variables are relevant, consideration of amenities such as climate, environmental and urban conditions, typically employed in h...

Urban parks, forests and open space systems provide many amenities for city dwellers. Yet perceptions of public value may not incorporate all of the scientifically confirmed public goods and services of urban green space. Theory and methods of economic valuation have been used to derive green space values – including direct use, environmental services, hedonic pricing and human health estimatio...

The absence of a competitive market may enable public-sector workers to extract rents from taxpayers in the form of high pay, especially when public-sector workers are unionized. On the other hand, this rent extraction may be suppressed by the ability of taxpayers to vote with their feet, leaving jurisdictions where public-sector workers extract high rents. However, although migration of taxpay...