Urban and Regional Planning and Design Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/26355
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item A Micro-Level Examination of the Impact of Rail Transit Investments on the Patterns of Firm Dynamics(2018) Saeed, Basheer A.; Iseki, Hiroyuki; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Transit-oriented development has been increasingly implemented at stations of both existing and new fixed transit systems across the U.S. to stimulate local economy and create livable communities. A common belief among planners in favor of transit-oriented development is that the provision of passenger rail systems promotes urban development around rail stations. There is a lack of empirical evidence, however, that supports this presumption. To address the gap in relevant literature, this dissertation examines the impact of passenger rail stations on the four different patterns of firm dynamics in the State of Maryland—firm birth and inward relocation as positive impacts, and firm closure and outward relocation as negative impacts. This dissertation uses both standard and propensity-score-weighted negative binomial regression methods to analyze the dependent variables of firm dynamics constructed from the National Establishment Time Series (NETS) panel data of the State of Maryland from 1990 to 2010. By examining both positive and negative impacts of firm dynamics, this dissertation estimates the likelihood of firm retainment and net relocation for areas in proximity of the passenger rail stations, while controlling for a number of potentially confounding factors. Positive and statistically significant relationships are found between proximity to the passenger rail stations and the rates of firm births and inward relocating firms in Maryland, regardless of differences in the level of maturity of stations. From 1990 to 2010, the areas of passenger rail stations in Maryland experienced a wide range of rates of growth in firm density, depending on the year of station opening. The results of the four different patterns of firm dynamics suggest that areas near passenger rail stations gain belated economic benefits, well after the introduction of rail stations, shown by higher likelihood of firm retainment and net relocation around the mature rail stations opened before 1990. In comparison, areas near the less mature stations that opened after 1990 had predominantly lower likelihood of firm retainment and net firm relocation. Planners and policymakers should be proactive in directing development near rail stations by adopting a variety of measures and policies that support or at least consistent with transit-oriented development.Item IMPACT OF GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATIONS ON THE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF REAL ESTATE OFFICE ASSETS: NET OPERATING INCOME, AND MARKET VALUE(2018) Sadat Lavasani Bozorg, Hossein; Howland, Marie; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Following the existing line of inquiry on green buildings economic performance, this study hypothesizes that LEED and Energy Star green building certifications contribute to premiums in net operating income (NOI) and higher market value (MV) in commercial real estate office assets when compared to their broader conventional market competition. This study utilizes two of the most comprehensive propriety databases in the U.S.: Real Capital Analytics (RCA) data on commercial asset sale prices and Trepp Inc. data on property income and expense information. Employing the hedonic regression analysis, and controlling for several building attributes including location, height, size, age, market perception of quality, transit score, walk score, etc., the study finds significant NOI and MV differentials across metropolitan statistical areas of five major U.S. gateway cities. The findings are encouraging and informative and may significantly contribute to the investment communities’ understanding of how investing in green buildings can positively improve companies’ economic bottom line.Item Three Essays on Agglomeration and Firm Dynamics(2017) Qiao, Yu; Ding, Chengri; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Agglomeration economy has long been proposed to account for an individual firm’s favor for denser environments. Previous strides have linked firm creation and productivity growth to the magnitude of agglomeration. This dissertation addresses three aspects of agglomerative impact on firms’ dynamic that have not been adequately emphasized in the literature. Specifically, the research provides an understanding of how agglomeration affects firms’ decisions on R&D investment, closure and relocation. In Chapter 2, I develop a simple Cournot type, two-stage competition model that reveals firms tend to reduce their R&D investment more in denser locations than in less dense ones with the presence of knowledge spillover. This implies that local agglomeration strengthens the negative relationship between knowledge spillover and R&D efforts. I then use firm-level data from China to test this theoretical prediction. The Tobit model yields estimated results that are consistent with the theoretical prediction. That is, the R&D effort is negatively correlated with knowledge spillover and the magnitude of the negative relationship increases along with localization agglomeration. The impact of geographic concentration on firm survival is studied in Chapter 3. Agglomeration economy encourages firm birth and growth, while agglomeration diseconomy accelerates firm death. The net impact of agglomeration on firm survival depends on the relative strength of agglomeration economy and diseconomy. Drawn upon an establishment-level data from Maryland, the essay finds empirical evidence supporting the claim that urbanization negatively affects survival, while specialization, diversity and employment centers reduce hazards for some industries. The finding indirectly evidences that the firm selection effect contributes to the productivity advantage of big cities. Firms frequently make spatial adjustments to accommodate their change in operation over time. Agglomeration economy could be one essential influence on a firm’s relocation decision-making. Chapter 4 delves into the relocations of service firms within the Baltimore Metropolitan Region. The nested logit model shows a higher probability for firms choosing a location with a high level of agglomeration. The estimates suggest diversity might be more important than specialization at the margin for intra-metropolitan relocation. Also identified is a more prominent localization effect than urbanization effect on firm intra-metropolitan relocation.