An Economist's Perspective On Urban Sprawl

Sprawl from the perspective of the economist is the focus of two reportsissued by the California Senate Office of Research. "An Economist'sPerspective on Urban Sprawl, Part I: Defining Excessive Urbanization inCalifornia and Other Western States," develops a method for quantifying thedegree of sprawl in metropolitan areas. Researchers found data suggestingthat California sprawl is no better or worse than in other western statescan be misleading. Sprawl varies widely among regions in California, and bysome measures occurred in the majority of the state's 25 metropolitan areasduring the '80s and '90s. "An Economist's Perspective on Urban Sprawl, PartII: Influences of the 'Fiscalization of Land Use' and Urban-GrowthBoundaries" finds that fiscal considerations are driving many local land-usedecisions. Data show that local governments' quest for sales-tax revenuedrives urban sprawl and costs cities billions of dollars in retail business.Fringe areas are doing more business than their population growth, incomelevels and other economic factors would warrant.

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