UC Berkeley

This dissertation studies the role of urban policies in shaping local housing markets, local labor markets, and transportation decisions. Chapter 1 uses tax records to document the first available evidence on the short-run response of financial capital to the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program, a federal place-based policy that provides tax incentives for capital investments in low-income neighborhoods. My coauthor and I document how OZ investments are spatially concentrated, flow towards areas with improving trends, and are primarily claimed by individuals at the 99th percentile of the national income distribution. In Chapter 2, I explore how real estate investment and home values respond to OZ tax credits. I find that targeted neighborhoods see a significant increase in new development and that local home values appreciate. Nearby areas see an increase in investment as well. Through a spatial-equilibrium model, I find that while the program as implemented had net benefits in terms of home value appreciation, alternative designations of neighborhoods for the tax credit could have substantially improved the program's equity and efficiency. In Chapter 3, my coauthor and I investigate the long-run effects of converting buildings to high-end condominiums on local home prices, demographics, and new business entry. We find that owners who are able to change their building’s legal status to condominium tend to see their property values increase and are more likely to invest in renovations and rent out their units before selling them. Following these conversions, the values of adjacent buildings increase and the surrounding neighborhood gentrifies. Finally, in Chapter 4, my coauthors and I study whether ride-hailing complements or substitutes public transportation by examining the response of Uber ridership to rail expansions. We find that a new station significantly increases Uber ridership nearby, and that this effect decays to zero farther away. In studying the economic effects of urban policies, the chapters of my dissertation point to the value of a layered approach: using granular spatial data; adjusting analyses for neighborhood particularities to estimate the causal impacts of a policy and to account for its indirect effects on nearby areas; and delineating the manner in which public policy effects vary with neighborhood characteristics.