Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Amenities, Quality of Life, and Regional Development

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Investigating Quality of Urban Life

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 45))

Abstract

There is an extensive literature in regional science focusing on economic and regional development in which the role of urban amenities and disamenities has been used to model quality of urban life. Modeling efforts for the most part have used secondary aggregate data and spatial econometric analysis. The chapter reviews that literature emphasizing the role that urban amenities/disamenities might play in influencing regional development and migration patterns.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Excerpted from: http://www.psrc.org/projects/vision/index.htm

  2. 2.

    See: http://www.psrc.org/projects/vision/pubs/V2040execsumm.pdf

  3. 3.

    The earliest example of all is apparently Ravenstein 1885 – see Greenwood and Hunt’s 2003 review of early migration research.

  4. 4.

    For example, according to the Census of Governments between 1992 and 2007, the number of instructional employees at state institutions of higher education fell by 50,497 from 435,789 to 385,292 – a cutback of more than 11%.

References

  • Adamson, D. W., Clark, D. E., & Partridge, M. D. (2004). Do urban agglomeration effects and household amenities have a skill bias? Journal of Regional Science, 44, 201–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alasia, A., Bollman, R, Parkins, J., & Reimer B. (2008). An index of community vulnerability: Conceptual framework and application to population and employment changes 1981 to 2001 (Agriculture and rural working paper series). Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Albouy, D. Y. (2008). Are big cities really bad places to live? Improving quality-of-life estimates across cities (Working paper 14472). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allinson, J. (2005). Exodus or renaissance? Metropolitan migration in the late 1990s. Town Planning Review, 76, 167–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anselin, L. (1988). Spatial econometrics: Methods and models. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartik, T. J., & Smith, V. K. (1987). Urban amenities and public policy. In E. S. Mills (Ed.), Handbook of regional and urban economics (Urban economics, Vol. 2, pp. 1207–1254). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beeson, E. (1991). Amenities and regional differences in returns to worker characteristics. Journal of Urban Economics, 30, 224–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post-industrial society. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, M. C., Blomquist, G. C., & Waldner, W. (1987). A Revealed-Preference Ranking of Quality-of-life for Metropolitan Areas. Social Science Quarterly, 68, 761–778.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry, B. J. L., & Horton, F. E. (1970). Geographic perspectives on urban systems. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blomquist, G. C., Berger, M. C., & Hoehn, J. P. (1988). New estimates of quality of life in urban areas. The American Economic Review, 78, 89–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bockstael, N. E., & Freeman III, A. M. (2005). Welfare theory and valuation. Handbook of Environmental Economics. Vol. 2, Valuing Environmental Changes, pp. 517–570. Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borts, G. H., & Stein, J. L. (1964). Economic Growth in a Free Market. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brueckner, J. K., Thisse, J. F., & Zenou, Y. (1999). Why is central Paris rich and downtown Detroit poor? An amenity-based theory. European Economic Review, 43, 91–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruinsma, F., & Rietveld, P. (1993). European agglomerations in European infrastructure networks. Urban Studies, 30, 919–934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canaleta, C. G., Arzoz, P. P., & Gárate, M. R. (2004). Regional economic disparities and decentralization. Urban Studies, 41, 71–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlino, G. A., & Mills, E. S. (1987). The determinants of county growth. Journal of Regional Science, 27, 39–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers, J. I., & Mulligan, G. F. (2006). Environmental valuation: Connecting theory, evidence, and public policy. In J. I. Carruthers & B. Mundy (Eds.), Environmental valuation (pp. 3–25). Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers, J. I., & Mulligan, G. F. (2008). A locational analysis of growth and change in American Metropolitan Areas. Papers in Regional Science, 87, 155–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers, J. I, & Mulligan, G. F. (2009). The “plane of living” and the recent evolution of housing values in the United States (U.S. Department of housing and urban development working paper, # REP 09–01).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheshire, P. C., & Magrini, S. (2006). Population growth in European cities: Weather matters but only nationally. Regional Studies, 40, 23–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheshire, P. C., & Magrini, S. (2008). Urban growth drivers and spatial inequalities: Europe – a case with geographically sticky people. Venice: Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, D. E., & Hunter, W. (1992). The impact of economic opportunity, amenities, and fiscal factors on age-specific migration rates. Journal of Regional Science, 32, 349–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, D. E., & Murphy, C. A. (1996). Countywide employment and population growth: An Analysis of the 1980s. Journal of Regional Science, 36, 235–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa, D. L., & Kahn, M. E. (2000). Power couples: Changes in the locational choice of the college educated, 1940–1990. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 1287–1315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cushing, B. (1993). The effect of the social welfare system on metropolitan migration in the United States, by income group, gender, and family structure. Urban Studies, 30, 325–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, S. W., Clark, W. V. A., & Ruiz, T. (2008). Demographic variation in housing cost adjustments with United States family migration. Population, Space and Place, 14, 305–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deller, S. C., Tsai, T. H., Marcouiller, D. W., & English, D. B. K. (2001). The role of amenities and quality of life in rural economic growth. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 83(2), 352–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Des Rosiers, F., Thériaul, M., Florent, J., & Villeneuve, P. (2005). The heterogeneous nature of accessibility to urban amenities and its impact on property values. Paper presented at the Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Las Vegas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, D. B., & Tolley, G. S. (Eds.). (1982). The economics of urban amenities. New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dicken, P., & Lloyd, P. E. (1981). Modern western society. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dissart, J. C., & Deller, S. C. (2000). Quality of life in the planning literature. Journal of Planning Literature, 1, 36–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorfman, J. H., Partridge, M. D., & Galloway, H. (2008). Are high-tech employment and natural amenities linked? Answers from a smoothed Bayesian spatial model. Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Agricultural Association, Orlando.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, J. R., & Perry, M. J. (1996). Metropolitanizing nonmetro space: Population redistribution and emergent metropolitan areas, 1965–1990. Rural Sociology, 61, 497–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, M., Ali, K., Olfert, M. R., & Partridge, M. D. (2007). Voting with their feet: Jobs versus amenities. Growth and Change, 38, 77–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fotheringham, A. S., Brunsdon, C., & Charlton, M. (2002). Geographically weighted regression: The analysis of spatially varying relationships. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, A. M. (2003). The Measurement of Environmental and Resource Values. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frenette, J. F. (2008). The index of community vulnerability (ICV) revisited: Exploring the determinants of rural working age population out-migration in Canada, 2001–2006. Paper presented at the Annual North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Brooklyn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujita, M., Krugman, P., & Venables, A. J. (1999). The spatial economy: Cities, regions, and international trade. Boston: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galbraith, J. K. (1967). The new industrial state. New York: Signet Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L. (2007). The economics approach to cities. National Bureau of Economic Research working paper # 13696.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., & Kohlhase, J. E. (2004). Cities, regions, and the decline of transport costs. Papers in Regional Science, 83, 197–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., & Maré, D. C. (2001). Cities and skills. Journal of Labor Economics, 19, 316–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., Kolko, J., & Saiz, A. (2001). Consumer city. Journal of Economic Geography, 1, 27–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodrich, C., Allin, B. W., Thornthwaite, C. W., Brunck, H. K., Tyron, F. G., Creamer, D. B., Vance, R., & Hayes, M. (1936). Migration and economic opportunity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, P. D., & Joseph, G. (2006). College-to-work migration of technology graduates and holders of doctorates within the United States. Journal of Regional Science, 46, 627–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, M. J., & Hunt, G. L. (1989). Jobs versus amenities in the analysis of metropolitan migration. Journal of Urban Economics, 25, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, M. J., & Hunt, G. L. (2003). The early history of migration research. International Regional Science Review, 26, 3–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gyourko, J., & Tracy, J. (1989). The importance of local fiscal conditions in analyzing local labor markets, Journal of Political Economy, 97, 1208–1231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyourko, J., & Tracy, J. (1991). The structure of local public finance and the quality of life. Journal of Political Economy, 99, 774–806.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gyourko, J., Kahn, M. E., & Tracy, J. (1999). Quality of life and environmental conditions. In P. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (Eds.), Handbook of regional and urban economics (Applied urban economics, Vol. 3, pp. 1413–1454). Amsterdam: North Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. B., Ban, C., & Huggins, L. (2003). Explaining the ‘brain drain’ from older industrial cities. Economic Development Quarterly, 17, 132–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, R. N. S., Tolley, G. S., & Harrell, C. (1968). The residence site choice. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 50, 241–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (1973). Social justice and the city. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, J. V. (1974). The sizes and types of cities. The American Economic Review, 70, 894–910.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzog, H., & Schlottmann, A. (1986). The metro rating game: What can be learned from recent migrants? Growth and Change, 17, 37–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzog, H., Schlottmann, A., & Johnson, D. (1986). High-technology jobs and worker mobility. Journal of Regional Science, 26, 445–459.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoehn, J. P., Berger, M. C., & Blomquist, G. C. (1987). A hedonuc model of interregional washes, rents, and amenity values. Journal of Regional Science, 27, 341–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, T., & Deller, S. C. (2007). Spatial modeling of the migration of older people with a focus on Amenities. The Review of Regional Studies, 37, 303–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, J., & Pigozzi, B. W. (1994). Nonemployment income and the economic base of Michigan Counties: 1959–1986. Growth and Change, 25, 51–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krupka, D. J. (2007). Location-specific human capital, location choice and amenity demand (Discussion Paper No. 2987). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Krupka, D. J. (2008). On amenities, natural advantage and agglomeration (Discussion Paper No. 3598). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambiri, D., Biagi, B., & Royuela, V. (2007). Quality of life in the economic and urban economic literature. Social Indicators Research, 84, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, N. (2006). Ideopolis: Knowledge cities – A review of quality of life measures. London: The Work Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massam, B. H. (1975). Location and space in social administration. London: Edward Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massam, B. H. (1993). The right place. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGranahan, D. A. (1993). Natural amenities drive rural population change (Agricultural Economic Report No. 781). Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueser, P. R., & Graves, P. E. (1995). Estimating the role of economic opportunity and amenities in explaining population redistribution. Journal of Urban Economics, 37, 176–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulligan, G. F., Vias, A. C., & Glavac, S. M. (1999). Initial diagnostics of a regional adjustment model. Environment and Planning A, 31, 855–876.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulligan, G. F., Carruthers, J. I., & Cahill, M. (2004). Urban quality of life and public policy: A review. In R. Capello & P. Nijkamp (Eds.), Urban dynamics and growth: Advances in urban economics (pp. 729–802). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muth, R. F. (1969). Cities and Housing. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C., & Sen, A. (Eds.). (1993). The quality of life. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Partridge, M. D., Rickman, D. S., Ali, K., & Olfert, M. R. (2008a). Lost in space: Population growth in the American hinterlands and small cities. Journal of Economic Geography, 8, 727–757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partridge, M. D., Rickman, D. S., Ali, K., & Olfert, M. R. (2008b). The geographic diversity of United States nonmetropolitan growth dynamics: A geographically weighted regression approach. Land Economics, 84, 243–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perloff, H. S., Dunn, E. S., Lampard, E. E., & Muth, R. F. (1960). Regions, resources, and economic growth. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plane, D. A., & Heins, F. (2003). Age articulation of United States inter-metropolitan migration flows. The Annals of Regional Science, 37, 10–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plane, D. A., Henrie, C. J., & Perry, M. J. (2005). Spatial demography special feature: Migration up and down the urban hierarchy and across the life course. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102, 15313–15318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power, T. M. (1996). Lost landscapes and failed economies. Washington: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, T. M., & Barrett, R. N. (2001). Post-Cowboy Economics: Pay and Prosperity in the New American West. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. New York: Touchstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rappaport, J. (2004). Why are population flows so persistent? Journal of Urban Economics, 56, 554–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rappaport, J., & Sachs, J. D. (2003). The United States as a coastal nation. Journal of Economic Growth, 8, 5–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rauch, J. E. (1993). Productivity gains from geographic concentration of human capital: Evidence from the cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 34, 380–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravenstein, E. G. (1885). The laws of migration. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 48, 167–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roback, J. (1982). Wages, rents, and the quality of life. Journal of Political Economy, 90, 1257–1278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roback, J. (1988). Wages, rents, and amenities: Differences among workers and regions. Economic Inquiry, 26, 23–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, R. J., Findlay, A. M., & Morris, A. S. (1988). The best cities to live in. Town and Country Planning, 57, 270–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. (1974). Hedonic prices and implicit markets: Product differentiation in pure competition. Journal of Political Economy, 82, 34–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. (1979). Wage-based indexes of urban quality of life. In P. Mieszkowski & M. Straszheim (Eds.), Current issues in economics (pp. 74–104). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rostow, W. W. (1968). The stages of economic growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild, E. (2009). The decline of the auto-industrial society. New York Review of Books, 61(3), 8–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savageau, D. (2007). Places rated almanac (7th ed.). Washington: Places Rated Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. M. (1977). Human geography: A welfare approach. London: Edward Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. M. (1994). Geography and social justice. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stimson, R. J., Baum, S. W., Mullins, P. F., & O’Connor, K. (2001). A typology of community opportunity and vulnerability in metropolitan Australia. Papers in Regional Science, 80, 45–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorndike, E. L. (1939). Your city. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolley, G. S. (1974). The welfare economics of city bigness. Journal of Urban Economics, 1, 324–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, E. L. (1954). Amenities as a factor in regional growth. Geographical Review, 44, 119–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Praag, B. M. S., & Frijters, P. (1999). The measurement of welfare and well-being: The Leyden approach. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 413–433). New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welch, R. K., Carruthers, J. I., & Waldorf, B. S. (2007). Public service expenditures as compensating differentials in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Housing values and rents. Cityscape, 9, 131–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whisler, R. L., Waldorf, B. S., Mulligan, G. F., & Plane, D. A. (2008). Quality of life and the migration of the college educated: A life-course approach. Growth and Change, 19, 58–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C. (2002). Developing indicators to inform local economic development. Urban Studies, 39, 1833–1863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yousefi, M., & Rives, J. (1987). Migration behavior of college graduates: An empirical analysis. Journal of Behavioral Economics, 16, 35–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, #408, 1203 Pemberton Avenue, Squamish, BC, V8B 0J7, Canada, USA

    Gordon F. Mulligan

  2. Sustainable Urban Planning Program College of Professional Studies, The George Washington University, 805 21st St NW, Suite 301, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    John I. Carruthers

Authors
  1. Gordon F. Mulligan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John I. Carruthers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John I. Carruthers .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Social Research, University of Michigan, Thompson St. 426, Ann Arbor, 48106-1248, Michigan, USA

    Robert W. Marans

  2. Network (AURIN), University of Melbourne, Architecture Building and Planning, Australian Urban Research Infrastructure, Melbourne, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Robert J. Stimson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mulligan, G.F., Carruthers, J.I. (2011). Amenities, Quality of Life, and Regional Development. In: Marans, R., Stimson, R. (eds) Investigating Quality of Urban Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 45. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1742-8_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation