Externalities of Housing Upgrading in High-density Cities

Jing Li

<p>This paper estimates the magnitude and spatial reach of housing externalities in a high-density urban setting using Singapore&rsquo;s Main Upgrading Programme, the sole nationwide large-scale public housing upgrading initiative between 1990 and 2006. Exploiting staggered implementation and controlling for nonrandom neighborhood exposure, we find that upgrading raises resale prices of nearby units within 500 meters by approximately 2.1%, while driving up the resale price by about 11.74% for the treated blocks upon completion of upgrading; effects decay to zero beyond 1,000 meters. An estimated model with distance-decaying externalities shows that in-kind upgrading yields positive externalities large enough to justify the distortions it imposes on recipients in dense settings, where spillovers are amplified; under lower-density counterfactuals, this advantage dissipates. Upgrading also disproportionately retains older incumbent residents, pointing to age-specific amenities as a channel through which externalities propagate.&nbsp;</p>

2026-05-19 (Tuesday) 16:30-18:00

Room C108, Economics Building

English

厦门大学邹至庄经济研究院、厦门大学-中国科学院计量建模与经济政策研究基础科学中心、中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院预测科学研究中心、中国科学院大学经济与管理学院

厦门大学邹至庄经济研究院、厦门大学-中国科学院计量建模与经济政策研究基础科学中心、中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院预测科学研究中心、中国科学院大学经济与管理学院

系列讲座

林老师，电话2180723，邮箱yurenlin@xmu.edu.cn

Xiaoyi Han？

<p>Jing Li is an Associate Professor of Economics at Singapore Management University (SMU). She is a co-editor at <em>Regional Science and Urban Economics</em> and serves on the editorial boards of the <em>Journal of Urban Economics</em> and the <em>Journal of Housing Economics</em>. At SMU, she leads the Urban Growth Pillar at the Urban Institute and also serves as the Director of the SMU-PHBS DBA program.</p> <p>Jing's primary research interests include urban economics, real estate economics and finance, and health economics. She has published in top-tier journals, such as <em>The Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Urban Economics</em>, etc. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Syracuse University.</p>

“邹至庄讲座”青年学者论坛（第98期）