Maria Juul Hansen defends her PhD thesis at the Department of Economics
Candidate: Maria Juul Hansen
Title: "Topics in Urban Economics: Non-Market Valuation and Location Choice"
Venue: 10 January 2020 at 15:30, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, building 26, room 26.2.21.
Assessment committee
Professor Mette Ejrnæs, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chairman)
Associate professor Ismir Mulalic, Technical University of Denmark
Professor Robert A. Miller, Carnie Mellon University, USA
Abstract
This thesis consists of three self-contained chapters on topics in urban economics. They complement each other by taking three different angles on what drives the decisions on where to live and work.Chapter 1 develops a reduced-form method to estimate marginal willingness to pay for non-marginal changes in non-traded amenities under time-varying preferences. It applies the method to violent crime. The results document that ignoring time-varying preferences causes a significant bias. (Joint work with Christopher Timmins).
Chapter 2 develops and estimates a dynamic model for housing size and residential and work locations with equilibrium constraints on the housing market. The chapter provides evidence that increasing the housing supply in Copenhagen lowers equilibrium prices, increases urbanization and motivates richer households to reside in Copenhagen. Increasing commute costs results in higher non-employment rates and lower equilibrium prices in the peripheral regions. (Joint work with Christian Langholz Carstensen, Fedor Iskhakov, John Rust and Bertel Schjerning).
Chapter 3 sets up a collective dynamic model of home and work locations for dual-earner households to study the intra-household allocation of commuting and its response to an increase in the number of jobs outside of Copenhagen. The chapter estimates a static version of the model for the Greater Copenhagen Area. The results suggest that the relocation of jobs affects locations of both residence and work and slightly reduces the intra-household difference in commute times and the gender wage gap.