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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning

The Psychology Of Residential Developers: Lessons From Behavioral Economics And Additional Explanations For Satisficing, Rayman Mohamed Jan 2006

The Psychology Of Residential Developers: Lessons From Behavioral Economics And Additional Explanations For Satisficing, Rayman Mohamed

Rayman Mohamed

Researchers have repeatedly observed satisficing by residential developers. The phenomenon has been attributed to their bounded rationality. In response, policy makers have designed policies that reduce risks to assist developers in overcoming bounds on their rationality. However, after decades of such policies, there is little evidence that developers have stopped satisficing. This article argues that bounded rationality is an insufficient explanation for satisficing by small developers. Lessons from behavioral economics suggest additional reasons for satisficing by developers. Satisficing is common because developers bracket projects one at a time, bracket each investment decision in isolation of others, create nonfungible investment accounts, …


Urban Environments And Neighborhood Change: Exploring Urban Sorting Beyond The Featureless Plain, Douglas S. Noonan Jan 2006

Urban Environments And Neighborhood Change: Exploring Urban Sorting Beyond The Featureless Plain, Douglas S. Noonan

Douglas S. Noonan

This paper introduces environmental features explicitly into the analysis of urban residential sorting where geographic barriers can mitigate neighbor externalities. Borders between groups in equilibrium will be more stable when supported by barriers. The hypothesis that racial disparity between neighboring tracts is greater when a barrier separates them is tested for Atlanta in 1990 and 2000 and compared to previous results for Chicago. The econometric estimation accounts for spatial dependence in the data. Significant barrier effects are found for certain types of geographical features (e.g., railroads, landmarks). The effect on local racial dissimilarity of the major extension of the mass …