Should Suburbs Help Their Central City?

Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2002

50 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2002

See all articles by Andrew Haughwout

Andrew Haughwout

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Robert P. Inman

University of Pennsylvania - Finance Department; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Abstract

Previous arguments for suburb-to-city fiscal assistance have stressed spillovers from city services to suburban residents or the fact that suburban residents (should?) care about their city's poor. We explore the validity of a third possible argument: Suburban residents - even those who never use city services nor care about the city's poor - may wish to support the city's budget if that budget contributes to the productive efficiency of the city's private economy and if suburban residents consume the output of city firms. The analysis here presents first-difference regressions of city and suburban home values, city and suburban population, and city and suburban incomes for 217 MSA's for the decade 1980-1990. We find that weak city fiscal institutions and increases in the rate of city poverty depress both the city's and the suburb's private economies. The econometric results are replicated in a general equilibrium model of an open MSA economy. Our results suggest each suburban family in an average MSA will find it in their economic self-interest to pay from $100 to over $200 per year to cover the added fiscal costs imposed by weak fiscal institutions or increases in the rate of city poverty.

Keywords: Metropolitan areas, fiscal policiy, firm location

JEL Classification: H7, H2, R5

Suggested Citation

Haughwout, Andrew F. and Inman, Robert P., Should Suburbs Help Their Central City?. Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2002, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=348980 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.348980

Andrew F. Haughwout (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States
212-720-2685 (Phone)
212-720-1844 (Fax)

Robert P. Inman

University of Pennsylvania - Finance Department ( email )

The Wharton School
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
215-898-8299 (Phone)
215-898-8200 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
247
Abstract Views
2,519
Rank
224,072
PlumX Metrics