The Homevoter Hypothesis
The Homevoter Hypothesis

Author: William A. Fischel

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9780674036901

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Just as investors want the companies they hold equity in to do well, homeowners have a financial interest in the success of their communities. If neighborhood schools are good, if property taxes and crime rates are low, then the value of the homeowner’s principal asset—his home—will rise. Thus, as William Fischel shows, homeowners become watchful citizens of local government, not merely to improve their quality of life, but also to counteract the risk to their largest asset, a risk that cannot be diversified. Meanwhile, their vigilance promotes a municipal governance that provides services more efficiently than do the state or national government. Fischel has coined the portmanteau word “homevoter” to crystallize the connection between homeownership and political involvement. The link neatly explains several vexing puzzles, such as why displacement of local taxation by state funds reduces school quality and why local governments are more likely to be efficient providers of environmental amenities. The Homevoter Hypothesis thereby makes a strong case for decentralization of the fiscal and regulatory functions of government.

No Place Like Home
No Place Like Home

Author: Brian J. McCabe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-03-18

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0190270489

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In the decade following the housing crisis, Americans remain enthusiastic about the prospect of owning a home. Homeownership is a symbol of status attainment in the United States, and for many Americans, buying a home is the most important financial investment they will ever make. We are deeply committed to an ideology of homeownership that presents homeownership as a tool for building stronger communities and crafting better citizens. However, in No Place Like Home, Brian McCabe argues that such beliefs about the public benefits of homeownership are deeply mischaracterized. As owning a home has emerged as the most important way to build wealth in the United States, it has also reshaped the way citizens become involved in their communities. Rather than engaging as public-spirited stewards of civic life, McCabe demonstrates that homeowners often engage in their communities as a way to protect their property values. This involvement contributes to the politics of exclusion, and prevents particular citizens from gaining access to high-opportunity neighborhoods, thereby reinforcing patterns of residential segregation. A thorough analysis of the politics of homeownership, No Place Like Home prompts readers to reconsider the power of homeownership to strengthen citizenship and build better communities.

Making the Grade
Making the Grade

Author: William A. Fischel

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-11-15

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0226251314

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A significant factor for many people deciding where to live is the quality of the local school district, with superior schools creating a price premium for housing. The result is a “race to the top,” as all school districts attempt to improve their performance in order to attract homebuyers. Given the importance of school districts to the daily lives of children and families, it is surprising that their evolution has not received much attention. In this provocative book, William Fischel argues that the historical development of school districts reflects Americans’ desire to make their communities attractive to outsiders. The result has been a standardized, interchangeable system of education not overly demanding for either students or teachers, one that involved parents and local voters in its governance and finance. Innovative in its focus on bottom-up processes generated by individual behaviors rather than top-down decisions by bureaucrats, Making the Grade provides a new perspective on education reform that emphasizes how public schools form the basis for the localized social capital in American towns and cities.

Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol. 5B
Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol. 5B

Author: Gilles Duranton

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 967

ISBN-13: 0444595406

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Developments in methodologies, agglomeration, and a range of applied issues have characterized recent advances in regional and urban studies. Volume 5 concentrates on these developments while treating traditional subjects such as housing, the costs and benefits of cities, and policy issues beyond regional inequalities. Contributors make a habit of combining theory and empirics in each chapter, guiding research amid a trend in applied economics towards structural and quasi-experimental approaches. Clearly distinguished from the New Economic Geography covered by Volume 4, these articles feature an international approach that positions recent advances within the discipline of economics and society at large. Editors are recognized as leaders and can attract an international list of contributors Regional and urban studies interest economists in many subdisciplines, such as labor, development, and public economics Table of contents combines theoretical and applied subjects, ensuring broad appeal to readers

The Risk of Regional Governance
The Risk of Regional Governance

Author: Thomas Skuzinski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-18

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1315304023

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Creating metropolitan regions that are more efficient, equitable, and sustainable depends on the willingness of local officials to work together across municipal boundaries to solve large-scale problems. How do these local officials think? Why do they only sometimes cooperate? What kind of governance do they choose in the face of persistent problems? The Risk of Regional Governance offers a new perspective on these questions. Drawing on theory from sociology and anthropology, it argues that many of the most important cooperative decisions local officials make—those about land use planning and regulation—are driven by heuristic, biased reasoning driven by cultural values. The Risk of Regional Governance builds a sociocultural collective action framework, and supports it with rich survey and interview data from hundreds of local elected officials serving in the suburbs of Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a story of the Rust Belt, of how local officials think about their community and the region, and—most importantly—of how we might craft policies that can overcome biases against regional governance.

Rationality in Social Science
Rationality in Social Science

Author: Ivar Krumpal

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-02

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 365833536X

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The concept of rationality and its significance for theory and empirical research in social science are key topics of scholarly discussion. In the tradition of an analytical as well as empirical approach in social science, this volume assembles novel contributions on methodological foundations and basic assumptions of theories of rational choice. The volume highlights the use of rational choice assumptions for research on fundamental problems in social theory such as the emergence, dynamics, and effects of social norms and the conditions for cooperation and prosociality.

A Research Agenda for Sustainable Cities and Communities
A Research Agenda for Sustainable Cities and Communities

Author: Kes McCormick

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2023-08-14

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1800372035

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Global in its outlook, this Research Agenda systematically reviews and critiques existing research on sustainable cities, calling for greater engagement with a diversity of perspectives. It interrogates foundational assumptions in the field and offers reframed perspectives on sustainability. Chapters also explore diverse approaches, actors and domains, locating emerging dynamics and new directions for practitioners.

In Local Hands
In Local Hands

Author: Lisa K. Parshall

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2023-03-01

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1438492472

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In Local Hands examines the contemporary (post-2010) village government dissolution movement and renewed state-level effort to encourage local government restructuring against the backdrop of evolving statutory authority, growing fiscal pressures, and state incentives. Drawing on multiple disciplines, Lisa K. Parshall explores the contemporary village dissolution movement in New York State, the impetus behind these reforms, and the impact of the state-level policies and incentives that are driving a growing number of local communities to consider local government reorganization through the elimination of villages as governing entities. Parshall explores the social, political, and narrative contexts in which these community-level debates occur, providing us with a study of local democracy in action and of the power of local control over the creation and dissolution of local governing entities. With its dual within and cross-case study focus on New York State villages, In Local Hands is both timeless and timely, providing valuable contributions to the study of municipal development and reorganization.

Proportionate Share Impact Fees and Development Mitigation
Proportionate Share Impact Fees and Development Mitigation

Author: Arthur C. Nelson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-29

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 1000782913

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After decades of evolving practice often tested in court, development impact fees have become institutionalized in the American planning and local government finance systems. But, they remain contentious, especially as they continue to evolve. This book is the third in a series of impact fee guidebooks for practitioners, following A Practitioner’s Guide to Development Impact Fees and Impact Fees: Proportionate Share Development Fees. Proportionate Share Impact Fees and Development Mitigation is the culmination of the authors’ careers devoted to pioneering applications of the dual rational nexus test. That test requires (1) establishing the rational nexus between the need for infrastructure, broadly defined, to mitigate the impacts of development and (2) ensuring that development mitigating its infrastructure impacts benefits proportionately. The book elevates professional practice in two ways. First, it shows how the rational nexus test can be applied to all forms of development infrastructure impact mitigation. Second, it establishes the link between professional ethics and equity as applied to proportionate share impact fees and development mitigation. The book is divided into four parts, with the first reviewing policy and legal foundations, the second detailing the planning, calculation, and implementation requirements, the third exploring economic, ethical, and equity implications, and the fourth presenting state-of-the-art case studies. Proportionate Share Impact Fees and Development Mitigation sets new standards for professional practice.