Essays in Urban and Development Economics

Abstract

This thesis consists of three essays at the intersection of urban, environmental, transport, development and labour economics. Each chapter tackles important questions regarding the role of new active mobility transport systems on the environment and housing markets of cities, and the potential of non-cognitive training to improve the labour market outcomes of urban low-skilled workers. Using principally empirical methods in a causal inference framework, the thesis makes extensive use of secondary spatial data and primary survey data. Chapter 1 examines the impact of bike-share on air pollution. Combining the universe of bike-share trips with high-resolution, ground measures of the concentration of air pollutants in New York City between 2009 and 2019, it estimates the causal effect of cycling infrastructure on air quality. A routing algorithm, leveraging the location and usage data of bike-share stations, is used to map areas where road traffic is expected to decrease after the introduction of bike-share. By employing quasi-experimental methods, the analysis yields causal estimates of the effects of bike-share on air quality. I find that the deployment of bike-share is associated with a 3% reduction in black carbon and a 13% reduction in nitric oxide concentrations, both pollutants associated with road traffic. Back-of-the-envelope valuation of the health and mortality benefits associated with the reduction in nitric oxide concentrations suggests that bike-share prevented up to $327 million in social damages. In addition, I investigate potential mechanisms and show that the introduction of bike-share is associated with a decrease in short taxi trips in areas served by bike-share, which I interpret as suggestive evidence that bike-share substituted road traffic. Chapter 2 investigates whether the initial deployment of bike-share in New York City between May 2013 and June 2015 increased real-estate transaction prices of properties close to bike-share stations. Given the potential of bike-share systems to act as a local amenity (by providing new transport options to commuters), agents may increase their valuation of property units near bike-share stations. I test this hypothesis in New York City using the universe of real-estate transactions. I find that transactions within 150 metres of a bike-share station are sold at prices up to 6.1% higher than properties between 150 and 500 metres away from the same station, or $185,755 higher for an average transaction. This result suggests that bike-share is valued by urban dwellers and that it initiated important value creation. Chapter 3 reports the results of a randomised controlled trial testing the impact of non-cognitive training on the labour market outcomes of low-skilled workers in a developing country. Non-cognitive skills are increasingly recognized as important determinants of labour market outcomes. To what extent specific skills can be affected in adulthood remains an open question. In this study, low-skilled workers employed on the construction site of a new railway in Dakar, Senegal were randomly assigned to receive a training intervention designed to affect conscientiousness-related skills. The findings show that treated workers were significantly more likely to stay in their job and have higher wages nine months after the intervention. The findings suggest that non-cognitive skills can be affected even later in the life cycle and can have substantial labour market returns.