Podcast appearances and mentions of Urban economics

Estudo publicado no Journal of Urban Economics considera que atrasos no trânsito aumentam consumo de fast food

GUEST: Tom Davidoff - Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Urban upzonings have been rare across the world, and many of the most significant occurred only in the past 5–10 years or less. One exception is the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, where cities and towns have been relaxing land use restrictions for over 25 years. Simon Büchler and Elena Lutz share their research on the long-term effects of these reforms on housing supply and rents, and the kinds of zoning changes that produce real-world results.Show notes:Büchler, S., & Lutz, E. (2024). Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use regulation. Journal of Urban Economics, 143, 103689.Anagol, S., Ferreira, F. V., & Rexer, J. M. (2021). Estimating the economic value of zoning reform (No. w29440). National Bureau of Economic Research.Greenaway-McGrevy, R. (2023). Can zoning reform reduce housing costs? Evidence from rents in Auckland. Economic Policy Centre. Asquith, B. J., Mast, E., & Reed, D. (2023). Local effects of large new apartment buildings in low-income areas. Review of Economics and Statistics, 105(2), 359-375.Gyourko, J., Mayer, C., & Sinai, T. (2013). Superstar Cities. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 5(4), 167-199.Mast, E. (2024). Warding off development: Local control, housing supply, and nimbys. Review of Economics and Statistics, 106(3), 671-680.Mast, E. (2023). JUE Insight: The effect of new market-rate housing construction on the low-income housing market. Journal of Urban Economics, 133, 103383.Bratu, C., Harjunen, O., & Saarimaa, T. (2023). JUE Insight: City-wide effects of new housing supply: Evidence from moving chains. Journal of Urban Economics, 133, 103528.

In a previous episode we discussed Auckland's unprecedented upzoning and its effect on housing production and land prices. This time we're joined by Eleanor West to talk about the political, social, and economic conditions that made the reforms possible — not only in Auckland, but across New Zealand.Show notes:West, E. (2024). Up-zoning New Zealand: the localisation of a globally mobile policy idea (Policy paper no. 003). University of Auckland: Economic Policy Centre, Urban and Spatial Economics Hub. West, E., & Garlick, M. (2024). Upzoning New Zealand. Works in Progress.Episode 45 of UCLA Housing Voice with Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy, on the effects of Auckland's upzoning on housing production and land prices.Greenaway-McGrevy, R., & Phillips, P. C. (2023). The impact of upzoning on housing construction in Auckland. Journal of Urban Economics, 136, 103555.Greenaway-McGrevy, R. (2023). Can zoning reform reduce housing costs? Evidence from rents in Auckland. Economic Policy Centre. WP016, 203.Two of the recent articles on how people are more skeptical of supply-and-demand arguments for housing compared to other goods and services, while also being very persuadable:Nall, C., Elmendorf, C. S., & Oklobdzija, S. (2024). Folk economics and the persistence of political opposition to new housing. Available at SSRN 4266459.Elmendorf, C. S., Nall, C., & Oklobdzija, S. (2024). Do Housing Supply Skeptics Learn? Evidence from Economics and Advocacy Treatments. Available at SSRN 4955033.Episode 23 of UCLA Housing Voice with Michael Hankinson, on the relationship between at-large vs district-level political representation and housing supply.YouTube: The Spinoff vs the worst Auckland City Council meeting of all time.

Jon Hartley and Edward Glaeser discuss the latter's seminal work on urban economics, zoning, land use regulation, and economic growth. They also discuss industrial policy, the important role of human capital and education in economic growth, as well as why crime has rebounded in recent years. Recorded on August 26, 2024. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Edward L. Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught economic theory and urban economics since 1992. He also leads the Urban Economics Working Group at the National Bureau of Economics Research, co-leads the Cities Programme of the International Growth Centre, and co-edits the Journal of Urban Economics. He has written hundreds of papers on cities, infrastructure and other topics, and has written, co-written and co-edited many books including Triumph of the City, Survival of the City (with David Cutler) and Fighting Poverty in the U.S. and Europe: A World of Difference (with Alberto Alesina). Ed has served as director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and chair of Harvard's Economics Department. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Econometric Society. He received the Albert O. Hirschman prize from the Social Science Research Council. He earned his A.B. from Princeton University in 1988 and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1992.    Jon Hartley is a Research Associate at the Hoover Institution and an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, where he specializes in finance, labor economics, and macroeconomics. He is also currently a Research Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) and a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Jon is also a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and serves as chair of the Economic Club of Miami. Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as well as in various policy roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, US Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.  Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes, and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC, and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list, and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/ RELATED RESOURCES: Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier by Edward Glaeser  Survival of the City: The Future of Urban Life In An Age of Isolation by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler 

We've long known that building more homes helps keep prices in check at the regional or metro area level, but what about the house down the street? Evan Mast shares two research studies that shed light on this important and controversial question. Originally aired in 2021. Updated show notes.Show notes:Mast, E. (2023). JUE Insight: The effect of new market-rate housing construction on the low-income housing market. Journal of Urban Economics, 133, 103383.Asquith, B. J., Mast, E., & Reed, D. (2023). Local effects of large new apartment buildings in low-income areas. Review of Economics and Statistics, 105(2), 359-375.Bratu, C., Harjunen, O., & Saarimaa, T. (2023). JUE Insight: City-wide effects of new housing supply: Evidence from moving chains. Journal of Urban Economics, 133, 103528.Li, X. (2022). Do new housing units in your backyard raise your rents? Journal of Economic Geography, 22(6), 1309-1352.Guerrieri, V., Hartley, D., & Hurst, E. (2013). Endogenous gentrification and housing price dynamics. Journal of Public Economics, 100, 45-60.Phillips, S., Manville, M., & Lens, M. (2021). Research Roundup: The Effect of Market-Rate Development on Neighborhood Rents. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.Diamond, R., McQuade, T., & Qian, F. (2019). The effects of rent control expansion on tenants, landlords, and inequality: Evidence from San Francisco. American Economic Review, 109(9), 3365-94.Liu, L., McManus, D. A., & Yannopoulos, E. (2020). Geographic and Temporal Variation in Housing Filtering Rates. Available at SSRN.“Opportunities and Obstacles for Rental Housing Registries,” Jan. 20 Lewis Center event with Assembly member Buffy Wicks and Catherine Bracy. https://youtu.be/vaDTWHxk-I8 

In this episode of The REconomy Podcast™ from First American, the seventh and final episode in the Summer School series, Chief Economist Mark Fleming and Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi delve into urban economics, from zoning regulations to land use patterns, examining the dynamics of monocentric and polycentric cities, while exploring the potential impact of remote work on traditional urban models.

Andrew discusses how urban economics is advancing – from new topics and new sources of data to the theoretical developments of the moment – with three people immersed in the latest research.   Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, Helen Simpson, Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, and Max Nathan, Professor of Economic Geography at University College London. They discuss the state of research about urban economies in 2024.   We are constantly finding out more about where people live and work, how people move around, where businesses choose to locate, and where people spend their money – all of which adds more depth to our picture of cities. The three researchers describe how new topics are emerging, the enduring relevance of some core urban questions, and how new sources of data – and innovative tools for processing it – are moving research forward, at a time of increasing demand for evidence to shape policy. 

The rise of surge pricing - where could it strike next? GUEST: David Moscrop, Contributing Columnist with the Globe and Mail and the Washington Post, host of Open to Debate podcast, author, and researcher Why is B.C.'s program to provide affordable housing plagued with delays and high rents? GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Will British Columbians finally make the leap to solar powered homes? GUEST: Dr. Kevin McLeod, Internal Medicine specialist at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, and Whitehorse Hospital in the Yukon Territory. Recently made the switch to a solar powered home Are B.C Hydro's energy conservation programs worth it? GUEST: Barry Penner, Chair for the Energy Futures Initiative, former Attorney General and Environment Minister of B.C. Olympic Wrap-Up - How did Team Canada do? GUEST: Rob Fai, Weekends Mornings on CKNW host and longtime sportscaster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Susan Pendergrass speaks with Stephane Lavertu, Professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, about the so-called "fiscal cliff" in public education funding. They discuss the idea that returning to pre-pandemic funding levels constitutes a crisis, the implications of declining student enrollment, whether maintaining or increasing current funding levels is truly necessary, and more. Stéphane Lavertu's teaching and research focus on public administration, political economy, public policy analysis and evaluation, and education policy and governance. He has a doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin, a master's degree in education from Stanford University, and a bachelor's degree in political science from The Ohio State University. His interdisciplinary research examines the politics of public administration and the performance of public organizations, particularly in the context of K-12 education. He publishes in public administration journals such as Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Journal of Policy Analysis & Management and Public Administration Review; political science journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics; education journals such as Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis and AERA Open; and economics journals such as Economics of Education Review, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Urban Economics. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

As the deadline looms for BC municipalities to allow multiplexes on single-family lots, a question arises: What are the benefits of densification? Guest: Tom Davidoff - Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Associate Professor, Strategy and Business Economics Division  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 B.C's real estate sector exposed: CRA uncovers $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Truckers rally for immediate action on region-wide shortage of truck parking GUEST: Amit Kumar - President of the Canadian Trucking Association of B.C Could B.C's center-right parties actually merge? GUEST: Richard Zussman, Global BC Legislative Reporter Fighting illegal drone deliveries in B.C's prisons GUEST: Alanna Kelly, Journalist for Glacier Media Former White House advisor criticizes drug decriminalization in B.C GUEST: Dr. Kevin Sabet, former White House drug policy advisor to U.S President Barack Obama Is it time to push for more truck parking spaces in the Lower Mainland? GUEST:  Eric Woodward, Township of Langley Mayor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does the 2024 federal budget impact British Columbians? GUEST: Richard Zussman, Global BC Legislative Reporter FUTURE OF WORK - Why businesses keep in touch with former employees. GUEST: Dr. Rebecca Paluch, Assistant Professor at UBC's Sauder School of Business Taxing the rich: federal budget hikes inclusion rate on capital gains  GUEST: Robert Levy, CKNW Business Analyst Did the 2024 federal budget address the biggest concerns about Canada's housing crisis? GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate The NDP's thoughts on the 2024 federal budget GUEST: Peter Julian, NDP MP for Burnaby - New Westminster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Today's Real Talk, the ultimate radio show dedicated to all things North Carolina real estate, business, and life! Hosted by the knowledgeable duo, Claudia Ogrizek, Realtor® for Compass, and Justin A. Ckezepis, Real Estate Attorney, Investor, and Broker, this engaging program brings you expert insights, market trends, and valuable advice to help you navigate the dynamic world of real estate. Today's Guest Dr. Chu | Distinguished Professor of Real Estate and Urban Economics and Professor of Finance at the UNC Charlotte Belk College of Business Today's Real Talk | Mondays at 3pm | WSICnews.com 

Immigration U-Turn: Canada sets targets for temporary residents. GUEST: Marc Miller, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Why Metro Vancouver shouldn't allow alcohol consumption in regional parks GUEST: Geri Mayer-Judson, Show Contributor & Dr. Cheryl Young, Medical Health Officer, Fraser Health Doug Ford shuts down plans of fourplexes in Ontario neighbourhoods GUEST: Colin D'Mello, Queen's Park Bureau Chief for Global News Toronto What does the US real estate shakeup mean for Canadians? GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Stay in your lane. Why are cities banning natural gas? GUEST: Bill Tieleman, director of the B.C Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy (CADE) How real is BC Conservative support? GUEST: Quito Maggi, President and CEO of Mainstreet Research Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What should Vancouver do about non-compliant short term rentals?  GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate  The Ick: Explained GUEST: Geri Mayer-Judson, Show Contributor & Damona Hoffman, author & certified dating coach What the heck is going on at Vancouver City Hall? GUEST: Frances Bula, Political Contributor for The Globe and Mail Is Canada's international student cap putting pressure on housing? GUEST: Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce B.C's minimum wage increases to $17.40 an hour to match rate of inflation GUEST: Harry Bains, B.C's Minister of Labour Should protective fencing be installed on Granville St. Bridge to prevent falling debris? GUEST: Tom Lancaster, General Manager at Granville Island Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The BC NDP's Bill 44 legislation, and its effect on the Township of Langley. Guest: Tom Davidoff - Director at UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, and associate professor at the Sauder School of Business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this pivotal episode of the Tactical Living Podcast, we delve deep into the intricate relationship between community protests, the inception of movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM), and the subsequent effects on urban crime rates.   Leveraging insights from a recent study published in the Journal of Urban Economics, we shed light on the pressing concerns around community safety, police-community relationships, and the broader implications for urban settings.   Interpreting the Data: Unpacking the study's findings, we explore the connection between the BLM protests and an 11.5% surge in reported murders over the subsequent five years.   Beyond the Numbers: Understanding that while statistics provide a snapshot, the real stories lie within communities. The rise in crime rates isn't just a statistic but impacts real people, families, and neighborhoods.    Community-

On to this week's show! The Ottawa Senators recently dominated the hockey headlines as it's been reported they sold for around $1 billion dollars US.  While Bruce M Firestone is no longer the owner, I'm sure he's proud that what he started has ballooned to a massive success.  Imagine if the Sens had kept future hall of famer, defenceman, Zdeno Chara then the Sens like every NHL team would have a Stanley Cup before the Leafs but I digress. As mentioned before, Bruce has built 1000s of homes, dozens of commercial plazas and office buildings. For fun and to give back, Bruce was an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Ottawa's Business School, Telfer School of Management.  Per his wikipedia, Bruce was a university professor as he does have his Masters in Engineering and a Phd in Urban Economics. Bruce now focuses more on coaching real estate investors as he finds the work really rewarding so he's here today to share the journey of his super successful career, how to be a successful leader/CEO, how he overcame much opposition to building an NHL arena on farmland, what his everyday investor coaching clients are doing to create cash flow in their portfolios.   The industrial land, co sharing, garden shed workshop strategy is particularly fascinating.  That's all on one property by the way. Pay particular attention to that part as that same real estate startup is now for sale for a couple million dollars. Please enjoy the show.   To connect with Bruce you can find his information on his website: https://brucemfirestone.com/  

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act was introduced in 2016 to protect consumers who had invested in residential real estate projects from malpractices by real estate developers. After the law was passed, most states established real estate regulatory authorities to register and oversee the conduct of real estate developers. What changes did this act try to bring in, and how has this regulatory change benefited consumers? Is the increased information about property litigation that the Maharashtra RERA provides affecting housing prices? Does RERA reduce information asymmetry in the housing market?In this episode of Interpreting India, Vaidehi Tandel and Sahil Gandhi join Anirudh Burman to give us insights into these issues and more. They discuss their recent working paper, co-authored with Anupam Nanda and Nandini Agnihotri. Their study analyses how housing prices change in response to mandatory disclosures under the RERA. The paper is titled, “Do Mandatory Disclosures Squeeze the Lemons? The Case of Housing Markets in India.”Episode ContributorsVaidehi Tandel is an economist working in the areas of urban economics, political economy, and public finance, with a focus on India. Currently, Dr. Tandel is a lecturer in real estate and urban economics at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research has been featured in The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Straits Times, Livemint, and others. Her papers have been published in the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Regional Science, Environment and Urbanization, Cities, and BMJ Open, among others. Her current work looks at the politician-builder nexus in Mumbai, agglomeration economies in India, and climate change and adaptation across cities in developing countries.Sahil Gandhi is an urban and real estate economist. Dr. Gandhi is a lecturer at The University of Manchester's School of Environment, Education and Development. His research is in the fields of urban economics, real estate, and land economics. His recent papers are on vacant housing in India, migration and tenure choice, housing supply in Mumbai, and so on. His research has been published in the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Regional Science, Environment and Urbanization, and Cities, among others. He has also led a report on affordable housing in India. Dr. Gandhi has bylines in international and Indian media outlets such as The Washington Post, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, and Livemint, among others. His research has also been cited in The Financial Times, The BBC, The Straits Times, Livemint, and more.---Key Moments(0:00); Introduction(2:39); Chapter 1: The Context Behind RERA(9:56); Chapter 2: Key Regulatory Changes(15:21); Chapter 3: The Case of Maharashtra's RERA(17:27); Chapter 4: Mumbai's High Proportion of Litigated Projects(23:04); Chapter 5: The Aim and Findings of the Study(27:35); Chapter 6: Variations Across Housing Submarkets (32:35); Chapter 7: Luxury Housing and Mandatory Disclosures(35:02); Chapter 8: Non-Luxury Housing and Litigation Costs(36:10); Chapter 9: RERA's Impact on Low- and Middle-Income Consumers(40:36); Chapter 10: Types of Litigation Faced by Projects(43:44); Chapter 11: Future Research in Urban Economics(48:22); Outro---Additional ReadingsDo Mandatory Disclosures Squeeze the Lemons? The Case of Housing Markets in India by Vaidehi Tandel, Sahil Gandhi, Anupam Nanda, and Nandini AgnihotriToo Slow for the Urban March: Litigations and the Real Estate Market in Mumbai, India by Sahil Gandhi, Vaidehi Tandel, Alexander Tabarrok, and Shamika RaviView: Time to Make RERA Roar by Nandini Agnihotri and Sahil GandhiIndia Has to Attack Causes of Land Litigation. Modi's Ease of Doing Business Depends on It by Anirudh Burman Making Land Titles in India Marketable: Using Title Insurance as a Viable Alternative to Conclusive Titling by Anirudh Burman--Carnegie India Socials:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndiaWebsite: https://carnegieindia.orgYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

Guest: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clean fuel regulations & carbon tax increase set for upcoming summer Guest: Peter Milobar, BC United Finance Critic and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA WHO advises not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control  Guest: Dani Renouf, Dietitian at St. Paul's Hospital Provincial government to give Delta a housing target  Guest: Dylan Kruger, Delta City Councillor Municipalities pushing back against B.C.'s housing targets Guest: Tom Davidoff, Director of UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Strange is a Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at the Rotman School. William is former Editor of the Journal of Urban Economics (with Stuart Rosenthal), and he served in 2011 as President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. He works in the areas of urban economics and real estate. His research is focused on agglomeration, industry clusters, labor market pooling, skills, private government, real estate development and real estate investment. In this episode we talked about: William's Background and how he got into Real Estate Rotman School Real Estate Program Paper Analysis of Skyscrapers Macroeconomic Outlook Urban Economics Resources Useful links: Book “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier” by Edward Glaeser Book “The New Geography Of Jobs” by Enrico Moretti https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Strange.aspx Transcription: Jesse (0s): Welcome to the Working Capital Real Estate Podcast. My name's Jessica Galley, and on this show we discuss all things real estate with investors and experts in a variety of industries that impact real estate. Whether you're looking at your first investment or raising your first fund, join me and let's build that portfolio one square foot at a time. Ladies and gentlemen, my name's Jesse for Galley, and you're listening to Working Capital, the Real Estate Podcast. My guest today is William Strange. Will is a professor of economic analysis and policy at the Rotman School that's at the University of Toronto.   He's the former editor of the Journal of Urban Economics, and he served in 2011 as president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. He works in the area of urban economics and real estate. His research has focused on industry clusters, labor market, pooling skills, private government, real estate development, and real estate investment. Will, thanks for being here. How's it going?   William (58s): Thanks a lot for having me, Jesse. It's going great.   Jesse (1m 1s): Well, I appreciate you coming on. Like we said before the show, I thought there's a couple different areas of research that I thought we could jump into and, and I think the listeners would get a lot out of. But before we do that, why don't we kind of circle back to you in, in your current role at the University of Toronto and kind of what you're working on today, how did that all come to fruition? How did you get into, into this business of real estate?   William (1m 25s): Well, I got into real estate as an urban economist, so when I went to graduate school, my favorite undergraduate econ class was urban. I liked it because there are so many things going on in cities. Cities are just interesting organisms. And so I, I pursued a PhD at Princeton with Ed Mills, who is the father of the feet, modern field of urban economics. That ended up with me at U B C amongst the real estate folks. And I gradually came to understand just how interesting real estate is too, and just how much an urban economist will have to say about real estate, you know, both on the residential and commercial side.   I feel incredibly fortunate that I've lucked into a, a career as satisfying as this one has been.   Jesse (2m 8s): That's great. And the current role that you have at Rotman, so for people that aren't, aren't familiar, that's the, the business school at the University of Toronto. The, the teaching that you do there, is it predominantly undergrad is,   William (2m 21s): It's almost entirely MBA and PhD. I teach some vanilla economics, which I think is important too. Yeah. But, but we also teach a bunch of econ cla a bunch of real estate econ and real estate finance classes. One thing that I would say to your audience is I'm also the director of the Center of Real Estate at Rotman, and we periodically put on public events, we put on one on downtown recovery back in December that was addressing the different pace at which downtowns were repopulating as Covid fingers crossed, recedes.   And, and we were scheduled to do a housing market one with City Post in March, and we'll keep doing them as interesting policy issues emerge. We are, we, we welcome people from outside Rotman. Please come everybody.   Jesse (3m 12s): Yeah, that's great. The, and we want to jump into one of the papers that you did, you did regarding covid. Before we do that though, I'm curious, you know, people in our industry, when we think of schools that have a real estate program at the MBA or or higher level, you know, whether it's economics or finance or real estate, I think of, you know, Rotman, I think of Osgood. A lot of people have gone to Columbia and New York for their Ms. Red program. Has that, how long has that program been the real estate specific aspect of it? How long has that been something that has been at Rotman?   Because I, I feel like you guys were one of the first to actually have the, that specialization.   William (3m 48s): It's nice of you to say, but it was, it started building up when I came in 2001 and we've specifically p positioned ourselves to not duplicate other programs. Like I, I, I like the SCHOOK program very much, but there's no reason that we need to do something that's as specialized as their program is, given that they already have such a program that's, that's a good program. So what we have done is to set up a smaller real estate program. We have three electives of the 10 classes and MBA would take with the idea being that people in real estate benefit from taking things outside of real estate, you know, that a good real estate person needs to know about finance, a good real estate person needs to know about strategy and my various colleagues in Rotman can help in those ways very much.   Jesse (4m 33s): Yeah, no, that makes sense. So before we, we jumped on here, we, we talked about a paper that kind of pid my interest and it was just being in the commercial real estate world and it was a basically a, a paper analysis of skyscrapers. I thought before we jump into this Covid paper, we could talk a little bit about this, this paper that you did regarding skyscrapers.   William (4m 53s): The skyscraper paper is still pretty relevant. I mean, what it's motivated by is that we're living in a new era of skyscrapers that if you look at something online like the skyscraper page, you can see the big buildings that people are planning to build. The Empire State Building was the biggest building in the world for on the order of 40 years before the World Trade Center. It has since been sub topped by Burge Dubai. And there are other buildings that are, are also really large that are either recent or, or that are being planned.   The big question is, are these big buildings being built big because it's economical to do so? Or are they being built big for some other reason? You know, possibly ego reasons, possibly other stuff. And so we have analyzed skys, this is in my paper with Bob Helsley from UBC. In this paper we look at skyscrapers as a contest for who is the biggest, this, this is assuming that people want to be bigger than the other person. Let me give you a couple of historical examples of that.   I mean, people did look at whether h skyscrapers were economical in the 1930s after the big skyscraper wave of the twenties and thirties. That was mo allowed by things like structural steel and elevators. And we see there a lot of stuff that looks game theoretical. So one story is the story of the lower man of the Manhattan Company building, which is now Trump's lower Manhattan building. And, and, and the incredibly beautiful art deco Chrysler building.   And they were each built to be the biggest building in the world at the time. Manhattan Company building finishes first, so it has a ceiling on it, and they are very happy because the ceiling on the sky on the Chrysler Building is, is gonna be lower. So for some reason, the Chrysler building did not build an extra a hundred feet that would've made them bigger than the Manhattan Company building. And, and this has an added issue of personal interest, that the lead people on both of those projects hated each other. They used to be partners. There was a breakup of their partnership and, and not the owners of the buildings, but the architects despised each other.   Unbeknownst to the people who built the Manhattan Company Building with the Chrysler Tower, the most famous thing about it, if, if the readers Google it right now, you'll see it is the spire at the top. It was hidden inside the structure, so people didn't know what happened. And so they waited until the Manhattan Company building had reached its ceiling and then they raised like a giant middle finger, the spire of, of the Chrysler building, which made it an extra 50 feet taller than the Manhattan Company building. It's really hard to argue that there is some economic tenants paying rent sort of argument that would make you do something like that.   That's one example. Another example is the Empire State Building, which I mean we've all seen King Kong bu movies, so we know how the Empire State Building looks, but, but the, you may not know that the spire on top of the Empire State Building, which made it by a couple hundred feet bigger than the Chrysler Building when it was built, that was originally pretended to be a Zeppelin loading dock. So people would be taking international flights by blimp and, and on top of Manhattan where winds are pretty big, they, they would tie the Zeppelin on and then people would get off on on it.   No one ever did that. That was just totally a fiction to allow the building to be as big as it could possibly be. So in, in, in this paper, we look at that as what is called in game theory and all pay auction. That's an auction where you have to pay, even if you don't win in, in this case, you pay to build the building even if you don't win the race of having the very biggest building subsequent to our paper, which was theoretical. Others have looked in various ways for empirical evidence in the data, and there seems to be a lot of it around the moral of the story being some of these big buildings look like they should be built based on economics, or at least you can make a justification of building such a big building on economic grounds.   But there's a lot of evidence that people wanna build a little bit bigger than the other guy, even if it's not economical because of the prestige that seems to go with being the biggest building in a market or in the world or of a particular type. If you look online, you'll see all kinds of lists of, you know, biggest office building, biggest residential building, biggest building in Canada, biggest building in Toronto. It seems to be something that people do care about and not simply just the economics of, of building real estate space for tenants to use.   Jesse (9m 29s): Yeah, that's a fascinating story. I'm almost embarrassed to say I I had never heard of that. So they continued to build with regard to the Manhattan Chrysler, they continued to build hiding the spire within, within the   William (9m 41s): Envelope, within the structure because the seal structure, you know, you can have it own. And then they literally leveled it up. There's a, I forget who wrote it, but there was a book, there's a book on this whole episode, which I think is a fascinating story. Yeah.   Jesse (9m 51s): Oh, that's great. Yeah, that it's, it's interesting too, I'm reading a book right now that New Kings of New York by The Real Deal, and it talks about a lot about kind of the Trump era of New York when it was the, the basically push to build more and more price per square foot condos, high-end condos. And it was really almost a race of who could build the best, the the tallest. And it became a lot of, seemed to be a lot about ego rather than economics.   William (10m 16s): Yeah, I mean, I think ego matters in real estate. Look, I mean, I I'm just a professor, I just write papers. Somebody who actually builds tall buildings can, you know, look at this thing that they've built and I understand why people's personalities are invested in it and why, you know, they wanna build buildings that are deemed to be significant. I mean, for a long time the, the CN Tower was the biggest structure in the world, and people make a distinction between occupied buildings and unoccupied structures. And so, you know, clearly we in Toronto are, are not immune to building buildings for ego-based reasons.   Jesse (10m 51s): And it was there a distinction in your research between commercial skyscrapers as opposed to residential towers? Or, or was it,   William (10m 59s): I mean, the early ones were, were all commercial and, and well, I mean the Eiffel Tower shows people how structural steel lets you build stuff that's big and then the Woolworth building becomes the biggest building in the world. And then as supplanted, as I said a little while ago, briefly by the Manhattan Company building the, whatever the Trump building is in lower Manhattan and, and Chrysler, they were commercial. But now, now we see people building big residential buildings. I mean, it, it can be problematic. The, the, the former Sears Tower, and I'm having a brain cramp now about its current name, Willis Tower.   I believe it, it was renamed a while ago. It had a problem after its initial construction because it was big enough that the building swayed in the wind and, and this made people feel very uncomfortable. And so there was a period of time and it, it could continue. I'm not sure whether it is or the tallest, the, the, the highest suites in that building were used for storage because people didn't wanna be up there because it wiggled around too much. Yeah. And, and, and just made them uncomfortable for residential.   I mean, I don't know what your experience is, but I have a friend who was on the 40th floor of a Toronto building and which, you know, he thought was beautiful, gave him a view of the lake and so on and so forth. But during covid when you don't wanna be in the elevator with a lot of people or worse still, if the elevator is slower is not running, you know, 40 stories is a long ways to walk.   Jesse (12m 24s): Yeah, absolutely. Well the one with the Willis Towers kind of, that'd be Chicago too, so I I'm sure it, it, it'd get pretty windy up there. I think for us, if, if I'm not mistaken today, our first Canadian place, at least in the Toronto area.   William (12m 38s): Yeah. Ever since it's been built, that's been the biggest building in Canada and it's, it's of course commercial. Yeah. There are some things that I believe people are considering that might be bigger but haven't been built yet.   Jesse (12m 48s): So you, you mentioned something that you ask your class at Rotman question that I, right before we got on this call, I would, I would've failed and can pose the question to, to listeners that you normally ask your class at Rotman.   William (13m 2s): Well the, I mean, I I've said that this is an era of skyscraper construction and I've talked about the earlier one. And the question is what is it that it took for us to have skyscrapers? And it turns out there are two things that it took. It took structural steel and it took elevators. And before I ask the question, I can give you the elevator story because that is also one that's worth hearing. Sure. Elevators are old. They're like, they're like, Archimedes figured out how you could use pulleys to lift things. The problem with a, a classical elevator is if the cable was cut, the elevator would fall and whatever was on it, including humans would be destroyed.   And, and, and thus elevators were not used, you know, for large distances for human beings because it was just considered to be too dangerous. The name that most people will associate with elevators is Otis. And, and Otis went to the New York World's Fair in, I believe 1856, give or take two years. And he demonstrated his safety elevator. And the way he did it was he was pulled up in the elevator with a very sharp sword in his hand to about 40 feet with an audience watching him. And then he cut the cable above the, the rope that was on the elevator above himself and the audience went, Ooh, because the, they, they were sure that he was now going to fall to his death.   But the Otis elevator's innovation was, it didn't fall, it was a safety elevator and it had automatic brakes that would arrest it. Before that you wouldn't see apartment buildings that were any bigger than six stories. Cuz you know, six stories is a lot to walk up. You wouldn't wanna walk up 10. But now once you have elevators, vertical distance is not a barrier anymore. And that really changes the ability, the demand for big buildings on the supply side. This is my question, what was the biggest building in the world in 1850 around when the elevator was developed and before skyscrapers were, were started to be built?   So I'll leave leave you a minute to think about it. Look it up on Wikipedia or, or whatever the answer is that the biggest building in the world was the great pyramid from something like 1400 bc. Why is that worth mentioning? Because it's a masonry building and, and the key feature of masonry buildings is that the supporting walls on the lower floors have to get bigger and bigger as the building gets taller in or in order to bear the weight to say, to say nothing of earthquakes and other problems with masonry buildings, structural steel changes that structural steel lets you go up.   I mean it's, it's incredibly robust. We don't always use structural steel. Now the World Trade Center did not to, to its peril. It used much lighter framing. And that was one of the things that meant that the intense heat that the airplanes produced when they hit the building were able to bring it down. That's a worthwhile story to to point out because the Empire State Building was also hit by an airplane during World War ii, which people might not know about because the Empire State Building is still there. Yeah. It was foggy and a, a World War II bomber crashed into it, but because it was structural steel, it basically bounced off.   I mean, it was, was not good for the airplane and not good for the pilots, but it, it survived. But we've learned cheaper ways to build buildings subsequent to that without structural steel. And that seems to be one of the factors that's responsible for the skyscraper wave that we have seen in, in recent years with Birds Dubai. Now the tallest building in the world for a while, Taipei 1 0 1 was, was the biggest building in the world. You have very tall buildings being built in, in many Chinese cities, especially Shanghai.   People are building big buildings, you know, and, and part of it is the strategic thing that we talked about a minute ago in the case of Taiwan. I mean, if you read about that building, it's clear that this was a matter of great national pride. And so the Chinese were building it to make Taipei obvious as an important business city and to make, to make Taiwan an an important place. The same sort of thing in places like Birds Dubai, I mean, what will be the financial center in the Middle East, it's, it's not obvious what it would be having big buildings, you know, they're hoping that if they build it, people will come.   Jesse (17m 10s): Hmm. Yeah. That's fascinating. Well it was good to, good to jump on that cuz that paper I saw that the title and I was like, well it's got economics, it's got skyscrapers. So just being from the commercial real estate side of things, I thought it'd be something listeners get some value out of. Well, I   William (17m 24s): Mean, so for, for your readers who are in the industry, I mean, it's a valid question for folks to ask. Do the economics justify such big buildings? I mean, in, in a lot of cases they do. People were convinced that the, say the Empire State Building did, of course the Great Depression happened begin after the Empire State Building was started and before it was finished. And so the Empire State Building was financially rather a disaster. It was called the Empty State building for about the first 10 years because they had so much trouble tenanting it up.   And so this is something that market participants should ask themselves. Does the market support a big building or is there something else that's going on with the building's size?   Jesse (18m 2s): Yeah, well we're certainly going through a, you know, a different version of that in terms of some of the construction or or over construction in some of our major cities. And just trying to see if the, if the lease ups will, will actually, if the absorption will be able to fill those buildings.   William (18m 18s): Right. I mean, we had buildings that were designed pre covid and that came on the market in 2022 and are partly responsible for the slow absorption that we've seen in recent years. I mean that's a, a very valid point. I mean, a lot of my other research has dealt with the fundamentals of why people want to concentrate spatially. Hmm. So, I mean, in Canada, a huge amount of our population is in the three cities of Vancouver, Montreal and, and Toronto. Yeah. In, in the case of the US when people use satellite data to look at how much of the country is actually occupied.   So you're looking at data that reflects down on the land and the satellite can tell you, is this dirt or is this concrete? The US is a big country, 2% of it is developed. I suspect the number would be even smaller in Canada. But I haven't seen somebody use satellites to do that. So we have this situation when Toronto and Vancouver at least are incredibly expensive when households say that affordability is the biggest issue that they face economically, not just real estate, it's the biggest issue that they face.   And yet everybody keeps piling into Toronto no matter how expensive it is. And thus prices continue to go up and up. I mean, I think one of the silver linings we may see from Covid is, is that through Covid we have learned that remote work is possible, can't do everything remotely that you can do in person, but you can do a lot. And that to the extent that Covid allows people to do things remotely, you know, either at different places in the same city or even in different in in, in different cities completely.   That may make it less essential for everybody to be down at bay in Adelaide, you know, paying the high rents that people pay down there and thus paying the high housing prices that you have to pay to be close to bay in Adelaide for your job as an investment banker, you know, this is a possibility to un unlock value for folks by freeing them from the Toronto housing price death spiral that people have been dealing with for so many years.   Jesse (20m 19s): Yeah. And we're, and we're dealing with, so we have 84 offices predominantly in, in North America, but we are a global company. And it's one thing where you are taking a b class or a suburban office and converting it to industrial or residential. It's, it's another thing to have these massive towers in cities and just trying to figure out how we repurpose the space, whether, you know, and   William (20m 39s): People are sure talking about that and there's, there's certainly fortunes to be made in people who feel how to figure out how to do it. Right. But I mean, what I'm hearing, and I'm, I'm nobody's architect, but what, what I'm hearing is the challenge of the seven and a half foot ceilings that you might see in an office in a residential setting are really problematic. And you can make a lot of internal changes in the building, but dealing with the floors is, is hard.   Jesse (21m 1s): Yeah, absolutely. And I think some of what you just mentioned here touched on, I noticed another paper on, on your, on your link on U F T or on Rotman's website was entrepreneurship in cities. And, and I imagine that kind of ties into what you're, what you're talking about here, it's that question of why do we congregate in these   William (21m 18s): Metropolis that, that there's something in downtown Toronto that people are willing to pay for. The market tells us that this is valuable. Both the housing market and the commercial real estate market say that Toronto's expensive people aren't throwing away the money for no reason they're paying it because it's a good, good value. As expensive as it might be. I mean, I like my job in Toronto, thus I'm willing to pay a whole bunch of money for a house here cuz I have to live here in or in order to be able to teach in, in, in the Rotmans school. So that, and a whole bunch of other things.   But, but ever since the dawn of the internet, some people have been arguing that distance is dead. And and I think that's wrong. Distance isn't dead. Maybe it smells funny, but it isn't dead yet. And in, in thinking about Covid, there was a New York Times op-ed that Jerry Seinfeld wrote titled New York City Is Not Dead. He wrote this in response to a friend of his, a fellow who owned a comedy club arguing that New York City was dead. And in this case, I'm happy to say that I agree with Jerry that that places like New York and Toronto are for sure challenged by, by things that happen associated with C O V D.   You know, two years ago what we were worried about is making each other sick. We are less worried about that as the disease has become less virulent as we and as we become vaccinated. But you know, hopefully, you know, COVID is killing 500 Americans a day. I don't know how many Canadians it's killed killing a day. Are we are much healthier than America is in that particular regard. But in, in addition to that being a challenge for folks, the working from home phenomenon is almost certainly here to stay.   It's just incredibly valuable for people to stay home and write reports for a day instead of fighting traffic to drive 45 that's from North York downtown, and then do the same thing again in the afternoon. So anyway, Jerry's friend wrote an article saying New York was dead. You know, that that that the value of being close to other people was, was really being challenged. Seinfeld said, no, it wasn't. We did some work using contemporaneous data. So the only time in my life I've used absolutely fresh data off the process and I I now have more patience with other professionals who use that, who use that kind of data.   It's just a lot harder to do stuff with that. And we looked at something called the commercial rent gradient. So the commercial rent gradient is telling you how much rents are declining as you, you're moving away from, from the city center. And so, so in Toronto, rents are highest in the city center. They go down as they move away, they rise in suburban sub-centers. We were not able to get good Toronto data to do these calculations here, but we did do it in cities that are like Toronto in the us like New York and Toronto and in and in cities like that, the gradient might be 6%.   So my, my co-authors were American, so they made me do this with miles, but the result was rents are declining by roughly 6% a mile as you move away from the center of activity in the city. If, if the big cities are dead, you know, given the long term nature of commercial leases, we should see people demanding large discounts when they're signing up in the downtown or, or close to the downtown, not paying the premiums they previously paid with the onset of covid and work from home and stuff like that.   What we found was a little of that, but not a lot of it. What we found was that the gradient went down by about a sixth. It went down from about 6% to about 5%, but it's still a gradient. People are still signing leases in 2021 to pay a big premium to be downtown, which is suggesting that, you know, as mu as much fun as Zoom can be and as productive as Zoom can be, it's not the same thing as sitting next to the other person and, and hearing them talk with their clients and realizing there's some synergy with what you're after and what they're after, which is the kind of thing that people are paying big dollars to locate downtown and getting.   So our answer is so far the downtown is less attractive, but is still attractive in, in core dominated cities like Toronto. Now can I tell you that it's gonna be that way five years from now? Of course I can't And and we do promise I'm saying this to someone who will broadcast it. So I guess this promise has some credibility. We promise that once, I mean our intention was once Covid is behind us, do this again. We are realizing that Covid will not be behind us and we'll have to pick another time to do it again and see what the evolution of this is.   But thus far we're still seeing people attracted to large cities. One scenario would be that this is a continuation of a phenomenon that Toronto saw in the late eighties and the nineties when back office stuff got moved out of Toronto to Mississauga and then later to places that are farther away than Mississauga. You know, people thought, oh no, the downtown's going away. No. What we were doing was we were keeping only the people downtown who really need to be there, the people who really need to be there to interact with other folks, you know, that that's what really matters and not the fact that the physical files are located in the building there.   Yeah. So this may be the same kind of thing where downtown Toronto just becomes more and more rarefied. Yeah. You know, that the investment bankers stay there, but maybe not the middle managers now that, that that is a social issue that we have to engage with, you know, if Toronto just becomes a city of investment bankers and Uber drivers. Yeah. You know, which is sort of the story that I'm telling you. Yeah. But at least that evidence and that theory points us in the direction of that being someplace we could end up.   Jesse (27m 4s): Yeah, no, for sure. And I think for the, you know, kind of the anecdotal side of things, what we see on the street is we see leases being signed. We see that there is a bit of a spread between the bid ask, but it, but it's not at the discount, which we, you know, I have clients they call me and Yeah, especially in the middle, at the beginning and in the middle of Covid, they're expecting these 20%, 30% discounts, you know, on pricing and for leasing and they just weren't happening. Landlords were providing inducements, whether it was free rent allowances. But even today, we, we still see these leases being signed and if anything, the trend that I've seen with most of the clients in the downtown areas, whether it's New York, Boston, Toronto, is that there's a, you know, the term flight to quality gets thrown around a lot.   We're seeing a lot more of that. And we're seeing, I agree completely, we're seeing even four years ago where a startup might want to be in a trendy area in, in the periphery of Toronto or of New York, and we're starting to see more of them have transit as a component. Not that it wasn't important before, but it's, we're seeing that almost pretty much at the top of the list for these, for these tenants.   William (28m 5s): Yep. Transit matters and, and the businesses are deciding they wanna be where the accountants and the business lawyers and the, the bankers are, you know, because they need to interact with them all the time. So I mean, the flight quality, I've heard noises in that direction also that what we would see would be, look, people have been talking about the retail apocalypse for years about online shopping, cannibalizing brick and mortar retailing. Now, did that kill the Eaton Center? It didn't because the Eaton center's in a market position where people are still willing to go there, but it's gonna kill someone.   I've got,   Jesse (28m 37s): I've gotta go there today. There's   William (28m 39s): Good for you. I'm glad one of my predictions ends up being true. Yeah. But, but credit old, old, old fashioned malls, they're getting torn down and, and getting replaced with something different. And I think we could imagine that being something that would happen too. I mean, just something that the audience should think about more generally is that the way the downtown has been for the last 10 years is different than it was 30 years ago, you know, when you had back offices there and it's way different than it was a hundred years ago when there was still a lot of manufacturing activity in the downtown, taking advantage of the proximity to the lake and to shipping and stuff like that.   And so the notion that the downtown should be frozen in Amber as of 2000 or something like that is crazy. It's never been that way. It's gonna change as business changes. And that's a good thing. I mean, that's, that's a way that the ability of Toronto to deliver good, good jobs and high value business outcomes is crucial for all of Canada. And, you know, anything that we can do to make Toronto a better competitor to New York, Boston, and San Francisco very much, much serves Canada's interests.   Jesse (29m 42s): Absolutely. So I wanna be mindful of the time here, will, but I do wanna get to your, your paper, your, I I'm not sure if it's your most recent paper, the one on Covid, but maybe you could give us the   William (29m 54s): Covid one was the one I just talked about a second   Jesse (29m 56s): Ago. Okay. So, so in, in, so what, what was the ultimate thesis of that? Was it this, this divide that we're seeing as, I would say even kind of an inequality of a potential outcome of having downtown cores be predominantly bankers? Or was that, was that the, the other paper,   William (30m 13s): The focus was on whether downtown would still be as important as it used to be. And we looked at, I, I left out some of the results. The, in addition to looking at core dominated cities like Toronto, we also looked at much more spread out car oriented cities like LA and Dallas and stuff like that. And the pattern in, in those places was different. In those cases, the gradient was already smaller. It was, you know, two or 2% rather than the 6%. And it didn't change a lot after Covid, you know, because la the downtown is, is different than the rest of the city.   But LA is not a downtown dominated city the way that Toronto is at all. And Covid didn't affect those. We looked at some parallel results that weren't as parametric, if you'll forgive my geekiness, the gradient puts an exponential functional form to get a percentage decline from the downtown. But look, I mean, how, how are we to think about sub-centers in North York and Mississauga and Markham and places like that in, in, in relative to having one downtown at Bay and Adelaide.   So we also looked at the premium that tenants pay to be in a high density environment. So that's a, a more flexible, functional form. We basically got the same results, which is the value of density does get smaller just like the gradient gets smaller. But it by no means goes all the way to zero. Cities aren't dead yet. Now the changes are just starting and things may change a lot. We may finally, eventually end up in a circumstance where distance really is dead the way people have been saying it would be since the early nineties.   But we're certainly not seeing it yet. And, you know, looking at real estate markets is one way to understand that, you know, because people put it, put their, you know, people can talk about distance being dead, but that's just talk, I mean a tenant paying, putting down a guarantee on, on real estate lease that's putting their money where their mouths are and how much money they're willing to pay for the downtown versus someplace extra or for a dense non downtown location like Mississauga Center of Mississauga relative to somewhere more peripheral.   You know, what we're seeing is people are still willing to pay premiums for those things. This could change, but it did not change in the early years of covid. And you're telling me that your sources say that it's not changing right now yet either. So I think that's where we are as of this minute. Will it change, you know, who knows?   Jesse (32m 39s): Yeah, it's a very, it's kind of a fascinating time in the sense that it's, it's hard to get data points when we're, you know, fingers crossed coming out of Covid, but potentially entering a recessionary environment. So it's, you know, we're, we're positive in one, but then we're drawn back in another. And I'd be re remiss if I didn't ask, if I was speaking to economists and didn't ask a little bit about the kind of macroeconomic environment.   William (33m 2s): I'm not a macro economist, so I'll probably avoid, but by all means you can ask.   Jesse (33m 6s): But, but yeah, I mean, how do you see this? Or if you do at all as a, as a comparison to oh eight or oh one or the early nineties and, and, you know, we, we come out of something that was extraordinary, the pandemic, but now we're entering inflation numbers that we haven't seen in, in years.   William (33m 26s): I, I think it, it, it is absolutely to be worried about because inflation, as, as economists who know more about the stuff than I do have always said it, it reduces the information, content and prices reduces the incentives that price systems have. So it just makes capitalism work less well than it would have previously. So it's certainly a risk. I will say that the government's decision to stimulate the economy during covid kept us from having a recession. I, I mean, I don't know if you recall, but in May of 2020, the C M H C who know a lot about housing more, more than I know about housing, they, their projection said that they predicted housing prices would fall.   I think the number was 18% in, in the preferred model that they offered. Now, I didn't have a model, but that was my inclination also, and also my inclination of the colleagues that, you know, housing is a normal good. People buy more of it when they're rich and, and there, there it seemed closing people out of their workplaces is surely recessionary. So I I I told my neighbor who I like and respect, you know, I I think you should, if you're thinking about selling your house the next few years are, are problematic. I, I was wrong.   I mean, the PR prices went up by more than 30% in Toronto. Quality adjusted during that, you know, in, in part because the government tried to keep people from being killed. But now they've spent huge amounts of money and they can't spend like that forever. And economies don't stay in boom, forever, ever either. So there, you know, there there is uncertainty and, and there is risk.   Jesse (34m 60s): Yeah. Well, I guess, we'll nobody has a crystal ball here for this next year.   William (35m 4s): Especially not Microeconomists and, and people who spent a lot of their careers doing theorists doing   Jesse (35m 9s): Theater. No, I, I, I wouldn't I once sell yourself short. I feel like a lot of the insights come from, from the micro and, and get extrapolated. Well,   William (35m 16s): I, I, unlike micro, I just believe in, I mean, economist, I believe in the division of labor and there are other people who know more about macro than I do.   Jesse (35m 23s): Yeah. So Will, we're, we're gonna wrap up here. What I'd like to do is, first of all, for those that want to kind of learn more on, you know, urban, urban economics, urban planning seems to be a, a passion of yours. But just generally speaking, are there books or resources that you've used in the past that you think would be good recommendations for listeners if this is something they're interested   William (35m 43s): In? Yeah, there, there are a couple of them. And, and I'm, I'm giving you civilian friendly books Okay. That you could read to pass the time on an airplane and not, not a boring textbook. The two examples that come to mind immediately are a book called Triumph of the City by a guy at Harvard called Ed Glazer and another book called New Economic Geography by a guy at Berkeley called Enrico Moretti. They are both lucid explanations of the kinds of forces that we've been talking about. Now both of them are a little less real estate than our discussion has been, but they are about forces that feed into real estate markets.   I mean, someone who's a market participant has to be asking themselves why are people paying the premiums for the downtown? Will they continue to pay the premiums from the downtown? And, and if not, how can I trade on that perce perception? I mean, because there are clearly gonna be places where people who get priced out by Toronto go and those real estate markets are gon are, are, are going to be booms. I mean, I don't think people are gonna go to Vancouver to be cheap, although maybe they will go to Vancouver for warmer winter weather.   A question that I think is, is unsettled as of this moment is, do people who get priced out of Toronto go to someplace close to Toronto like Hamilton? You know, so you can drive in for a Wednesday meeting, but it's cheaper than Toronto is, or do you go somewhere or do you go to someplace like Montreal that is farther but is cheap for a big city? Or do you think about somewhere that's even farther still and, and, and cheaper still like Halifax. I mean the Maritimes are wonderful place a whole lot cheaper than Toronto.   And if a huge amount of your work is Zoom meetings, you know, for some people that location is, is gonna be the more economical place to   Jesse (37m 25s): Be. Yeah, that's, that's interesting. So I've, I've read Ed Glazer's book, I've, I have not read the New Economic Geography. So that definitely put on the reading list for those. Just interested in, in kind of your research will or the Rotman program in general, what, what's the best place to send? And we'll put a link in the show notes.   William (37m 46s): I mean, look, people can email me and I will either respond or not, depending on how many thousands of emails that I get. I mean, for admission to the programs, you know, we are recruiting students every year. I think our, our MBA program is fantastic. We have programs that work at the full-time level and get done faster, but we also have part-time programs that get done that, that work better for professionals. And I actually think there's a, the case for the part-time programs have become stronger in recent years because there's gonna be a lot more times when somebody can meet a professor in office hours on Zoom rather than having to schlep up to the Rotman school af after work.   But, but also we, we have these public events and googling Rotman events. I, I don't know what the le the link would be, but Googling Rotman events is gonna put you in touch with real estate things. But a lot of other things would be useful and we, we try to be good citizens. We're physically close to the center of business in Canada. It's what five subway stops or so to get up here. You know, we want people in the building and now that the building is open, I think people would find it a good use of their time to show up for some of the things that happen here.   I would also give a shout out to the New School of Cities that was formed separately of us at the University of Toronto. This attempts to include the stuff from my world on econ and real estate, but also architects and planning and things like that that also relate to cities. It is the first of its kind in the world, has a fantastic director and I think we'll do very cool things in time.   Jesse (39m 21s): My guest today has been Will Strange, will, thanks for being part of Working Capital.   William (39m 25s): Thank you very much.   Jesse (39m 36s): You so much for listening to Working Capital, the Real Estate podcast. I'm your host, Jesse for Galley. If you like the episode, head on to iTunes and leave us a five star review and share on social media. It really helps us out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. Jesse for galley, F R A G A L E. Have a good one. Take care.

Bryan Yu is Central 1 credit union's chief economist. Tsur Somerville is a professor at the UBC Sauder School of Business and a senior fellowat UBC's Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate. Dr. Charles Samuels is the medical director of the Centre for Sleep & Human Performance in Calgary.

This week's podcast guests are Michael Van Konynenburg, President of Eastdil Secured, and Chris Hartung, Executive Director of Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at Berkeley and Co-founder of the Terra Firma REIT investment funds. Mike and Chris provide their perspectives on how the downturn is affecting both the public and private commercial real estate markets particularly given the near lockdown in the real estate capital markets.

With online shopping being the preferred way to get goods (hello, two-day shipping!), shopping malls have become a thing of the past. The question remains: what is the solution to the vacancy of shopping malls? Is there one? Tim Bray (B.S. Real Estate & Urban Economics, UCONN) and Jon Nelson discuss the latest news of the Simon Property Group transferring ownership of the Cyrstal Mall in Waterford, CT, which has been part of the community for ages. What are your thoughts on shopping malls closing? Are they still relevant? What changes are needed in order for them to be successful? Let us know, we'd love to hear! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/seaportre/support

 Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz speaks with Michael Levy, who is chief executive officer at the real estate investment and development firm Crow Holdings. Previously, he worked in real estate finance and investment management at Morgan Stanley. Levy is currently a member of the Real Estate Roundtable, the Advisory Board at the Institute for Real Estate Operating Companies, and the Policy Advisory Board at the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also an Urban Land Institute Foundation governor.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Art Carden is a Professor of Economics who wears many hats and juggles commitments, responsibilities, and organizes and interprets a huge amount of information. He's a professor of Economics at Samford University's Brock School of Business, and his research has appeared in Business Ethics Quarterly, the Journal of Urban Economics, Applied Economics, and Public Choice, […]

Assistant Professor Milena Almagro talks about her initial passion for mathematics and how it extended to facilitating her research in urban economics. She also explains how her globe-trotting career path has given her a unique perspective on the microeconomics of gentrification and her aspirations as she starts her academic career at The University of Chicago.

Libby Znaimer is joined, first, by Suzanne Boyd, Editor-In-Chief and Publisher of Zoomer Magazine, followed

New poll shows housing prices in Canada are set for a sharp fall in 2023 Thomas Davidoff, Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate discusses just how much house prices are set to drop in 2023. Plus, your calls! - Would you sell your home this year if you knew the bubble was bursting next year? Meteorologists say August was one of the hottest months on record in BC Kristi Gordon, Senior Meteorologist for Global News explains why August was one of the hottest months on record in British Columbia Back To School: What school safety looks like in 2022 Rob Rai, Manager of Safe Schools Department for the Surrey School Board discusses what the Surrey School District has in store to keep students safe this school year New rules coming this month to help Canadians with cancelled, delayed flights Claire Newell, President of Travel Best Bet discusses new rules to help travellers with cancelled and delayed flights. Plus, an update on the cruise industry - Carnival Cruise Line will allow unvaccinated guests to self-test for COVID-19 on most cruises beginning September 6 The Wrap: What is your favourite season? Why is traveling in Canada so difficult? On The Wrap this week: Leah Holiove - TV Reporter and Radio Host Sarah Daniels - Real estate agent in South Surrey; author and broadcaster

Thomas Davidoff, Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate discusses just how much house prices are set to drop in 2023. Plus, your calls! - Would you sell your home this year if you knew the bubble was bursting next year?

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part III This episode is the third and final in a series based on a new special issue on Urban Economics and History in Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with authors and concludes Season 2 of the show. Today's Guests: Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Leah Brooks is an Associate Professor at George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Ting Chen is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hong Kong Baptist University. David Nagy is a Junior Researcher at Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI), an Adjunct Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and a Barcelona School of Economics Affiliated Professor. Yanos Zylberberg is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol. Jason Barr is a Professor of Economics at Rutgers University-Newark. Papers Discussed in Today's Episode: What Can Developing Cities Today Learn from the Urban Past? by Ed Glaeser What if You Build It and They Don't Come? How the Ghost of Transit Past Haunts the Transit Present by Leah Brooks and Genevieve Denoeux War Shocks, Migration, and Historical Spatial Development in China by Ting Chen and James Kung Quantitative Economic Geography Meets History: Questions, Answers and Challenges by David Nagy Urban Economics in a Historical Perspective: Recovering Data with Machine Learning by Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, and Yanos Zylberberg Viewing Urban Spatial History from Tall Buildings by Gabriel Ahlfedlt and Jason Barr Firms, Fires, and Firebreaks: The Impact of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster on Business Agglomeration by James Siodla Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Special thanks to our outgoing producer Schuyler Pals (Schuyler, you'll be greatly missed - thank you and good luck on the bar exam!) Our theme music is by Oleksandr Koltsov. Sounds from Ambience, London Street by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Can land use regulations end up incentivizing informal settlements, or mitigate? In this episode, cohosted by Flavia Leite of UC Berkeley, we interview Prof. Cynthia Goytia of Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. We talk to Prof. Goytia about an ambitious multi-year project which charts the relationship between land use regulation and informal settlements in over 300 municipalities across 10 different Latin American countries. We talk about the prevalence of low density residential zoning in Latin American cities, the impact this and other land use regulations have on promoting or mitigating informal settlements, and what local governments can do to leverage what is arguably their cities' biggest asset – their land – to make more inclusive cities. Although the reports we discuss are not yet publicly available, we will post it when they are published. Cynthia Goytia is Head of the MSc. in Urban Economics at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she also has founded and chairs since 2012, the Urban Policy and Housing Research Center (CIPUV), one of the most prestigious urban research centers in Latin America. She has developed a relevant and influential body of academic research on urban policies, housing and land markets. She is a senior urban consultant to Argentinas and Latin American governments, the World Bank, United Nations Inter-American Development Bank and CAF (Banca de Desarrollo de America Latina), and fellow of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Flávia is a PhD student in City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. Her research interest revolves around the relationship between formal and informal housing markets, with a specific focus on housing financialization, access to credit, and housing policy in Latin America.

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part II This episode is the second in a series based on a forthcoming special issue on Urban Economics and History, to be published in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with multiple authors. Guests: Brian Beach is Assistant Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University and Dan Bogart is Professor of Economics at the University of California Irvine. Robert Margo is Professor of Economics at Boston University. Alexander Whalley is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business. Katherine Eriksson is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California Davis and Allison Shertzer is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Papers Discussed in Today's Episode: Water Infrastructure and Health in U.S. Cities by Brian Beach. Infrastructure and Institutions: Lessons from History by Dan Bogart. Industrialization and Urbanization in Nineteenth Century America by Jeremy Atack, Robert Margo, and Paul Rhode. 150 Years of the Geography of Innovation by Michael Andrews and Alexander Whalley. Immigrants and Cities during the Age of Mass Migration by Katherine Eriksson and Zachary Ward. Zoning and Segregation in Urban Economic History by Allison Shertzer, Tate Twinam, and Randy Walsh. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. Our theme music is by Oleksandr Koltsov. Sounds from Ambience, London Street by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part I This episode is the first in a series based on a forthcoming special issue focused on Urban Economics and History, to be published in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with multiple authors. Guests: Walker Hanlon is Associate Professor of Economics at Northwestern University and Stephan Heblich is Associate Professor and Munk Chair of Economics at the University of Toronto. Maarten Bosker is Professor of International Trade and Development at Erasmas University of Rotterdam. Noel Johnson is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Treb Allen is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College Papers Discussed in this Episode: History and Urban Economics by Walker Hanlon and Stephan Heblich City Origins by Maarten Bosker Medieval Cities Through the Lens of Urban Economics by Remie Jedwab, Noel Johnson, and Mark Koyoma Persistance and Path Dependence: A Primer by Treb Allen and Dave Donaldson What Future for History Dependence in Spatial Economics by Jeffrey Lin and Ferdinand Rauch Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. Special theme music for this series: Oleksandr Koltsov Ambience, London Street, A by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Australians are preparing to retire later in life, around 65 for men & 64 for women, but life expectancy is giving people a longer retirement. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Federal Budget 2022: $452B focused on affordability, innovation Bridgitte Anderson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade discusses the federal budget tabled by Deputy Prime Minister and federal Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland  Ban on foreign buyers not likely to have an impact on Metro Vancouver housing prices, experts say Tsur Somerville, director of the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate answers how effective the ban on foreign buyers will be in helping to make housing more affordable in Metro Vancouver.  EXCLUSIVE: One-on-one with Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre Pierre Poilievre, Conservative MP for Carleton, candidate for Conservative Party leadership goes one-on-one with Jas Johal.  The Jas Johal Political Forum Dissecting the federal Libera's budget for 2022 On the Political Forum this week:  Bill Tieleman, President of West Star Communications Alex Shiff, Worked in political communications at all levels of government for the past decade, current Senior Consultant at Navigator LTD, a public relations and strategy firm BC to extend their outdoor patio program by one year to 2023; certain municipalities need more time to address policy changes Ian Tostenson - CEO of British Columbia Restaurants & Foodservices Association discusses B.C's decision to extend the outdoor patio program. BCGEU, one of BC's largest public sector unions, declares talks with provincial government are at an impasse. How will this impact negotiations for other unions? Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun provincial affairs political columnist update us on current union discussions in B.C. 

Ch1: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has presented her second federal budget. There are more than a few things that will impact your wallet directly. Guest: David Akin, Global National Chief Political Correspondent. Ch2: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has had a lot to consider in shaping Ottawa's latest budget. Guest: Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister  Ch3: A new musical will premiere this summer staring Canadian singer Alan Doyle Guest: Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea Singer Ch4: Experts are skeptical about the proposed ban on foreign buyers as the Federal government looks to tackle housing affordability. Guest: Thomas Davidoff,  UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate Ch5: If enacted, the elected official would be put on a mandatory paid leave until the criminal process is complete or resolved. Guest: Nathan Cullen, Minister of Municipal Affairs See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tsur Somerville, director of the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate answers how effective the ban on foreign buyers will be in helping to make housing more affordable in Metro Vancouver. 

Ch1: The Canadian government is moving forward with finalization talks towards procuring Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, according to Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi. Guest: Amanda Connolly, Global News National Online Journalist. Ch2: The B.C. government has introduced legislation that will allow for a cooling off period following the purchase of a home, in an effort to protect buyers in the province's red-hot real estate market. Guest: Mike Bernier, MLA Peace River South. Ch3: As gas prices continue to surge, the demand for electric vehicles does as well. Guest:  Olivier Vincent, CEO of Autozen. Ch4: The first sensor for Canada's earthquake early warning system has been installed on the coast of British Columbia, government officials announced Monday. Guest: Alison Bird, Seismologist; Liaison & Outreach Officer for Natural Resources Canada. Ch5: Spring feels official in Vancouver once all the cherry blossoms appear. Guest: Raji Sohal, CKNW Contributor Ch6: The new homebuyer protection bill, that is supposed to provide a cooling off period in the real estate market, has its critics. One of the criticisms of the new bill is that it will be counterproductive. Guest: Thomas Davidoff, Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate.

Join LaTangela for another round of #RandomResearch - we have questions that need answers. The surveys went out and the results are in! This week in the hot seat and on the #TanLine we are chatting with Emmy/NAACP Image Award winner Joe Morton and the incredible celebrity coach/writer/director Tracey Moore. Their new project "Inside The Black Box" is a powerful piece you can not afford to miss. Now available and streaming on CRACKLE. Watch interview HERE *************************************************************************************** NEW MUSIC ALERT Never Knew - LaTangela Fay NEW BOOK ALERT P.O.O.F. (Power Over Obstacles Forever) - LaTangela Fay Sherman *************************************************************************************** The LaTangela Show RADIO WEMX - M-F 10a.m.-3p.m. Baton Rouge, La KTCX - M-F 10a.m.- 3p.m. Beaumont, TX TV Fay At Five - M-F 5a.m. & 5p.m. Urban Economics with LaTangela Fay M/W/F 5:30a.m. & 5:30p.m. Weekend Updates - Fridays 8a.m.-10a.m. PODCAST- ALL digital platforms YOUTUBE - #LaTangelaFay WLFT/KGLA/The Louisiana Film Channel ************************************************************************************See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Discussion Links:Opportunities for Better Federal Housing Policy: How the Biden Administration and Congress Can Improve Housing AffordabilityZoned Out: How School and Residential Zoning Limit Educational OpportunityEmily Hamilton's Page at the Mercatus CenterMarket Urbanism BlogFollow Emily Hamiltion on Twitter  Twitter: http://twitter.com/ArchbridgeInst Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Archbridge Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.archbridgeinstitute.org/newsletter-signup/

Urban Economics and Development Podcastswith Andre Williams SrI'm a real estate developer and entrepreneur. I'm an author of Every body Is A Real Estate Investor (Yes Even You) available on Amazon and Wal-Mart on line. My podcast talks about economics in the urban areas. I teach real estate investing, and on starting and maintaining businesses. We inspire entrepreneurship and the importance of small businesses. We speak on financial literacy and education. If you want to learn strategies I have used over the last 20 years come on in and pull up a seat. Get a pen out take notes and enjoy the journey. We also have a free real estate investment group called Dominion Investment Club Inc

Economists on Zoom Getting Coffee hosts Prof. Ran Abramitzky and Prof. Leah Boustan. Ran and Leah are leading economists with a joint research agenda on immigration to the United States from a historical perspective, and particularly, on the mass migration from Europe to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their joint research has been published by the top journals and their work represent the gold standard of research on economic history. In this episode they share the main lessons from their work on immigration, as well as how they think their findings can inform immigration policy. We also discuss their upcoming book, and their advice for successful co-authorship!  Ran Abramitzky is a Professor of Economics and the Senior Associate Dean of the Social Sciences at Stanford University. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is the former co-editor of Explorations in Economic History.  Leah Boustan is a Professor of Economics at Princeton University, where she is also a faculty associate of the Industrial Relations Section. She is co-director of the Development of the American Economy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and serves as co-editor at the Journal of Urban Economics and on the editorial board of the American Economic Review and of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.For future episodes please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to this podcast, and don't forget to visit our website www.economistsonzoomgettingcoffee.com to WATCH this and other episodes, and to get more information about the show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danybahar.substack.com