Paolo Veneri

Assessing Polycentric Urban Systems in the OECD: Country, Regional and Metropolitan Perspectives

Abstract Contemporary urban systems in OECD countries are structured around functional regions, which often overcome established city-boundaries. Reading space in terms of functional regions allows assessing changes in urban hierarchies and spatial structures, including the polycentricity of urban systems at national, regional and metropolitan scales. By using a harmonized definition of functional urban areas in OECD countries, this paper first provides a sound definition of polycentricity at each spatial scale, highlighting for each of them the different links with policy. Second, it provides measures of polycentricity and explores the economic implications of different spatial structures. Results show that relatively more monocentric regions have higher GDP per capita than their more polycentric counterparts. At the country level, on the other hand, polycentricity is associated with higher GDP per capita.

Spatial structure and mobility patterns: towards a taxonomy of the Italian urban systems

Spatial structure and mobility patterns: towards a taxonomy of the Italian urban systems - Urban spatial organization has become a wide field of research in the last years, since it is thought to be an important determinant of the city’s performance from many points of view. Nevertheless, Italian urban spatial organization has not been studied in depth and a general description of the Italian urban territory is lacking. The aim of this work is to build a taxonomy of the Italian cities where the latter are conceptualised as agglomeration of contiguous municipalities on the basis of their patterns of spatial organization and commuting-to-work mobility. For this purpose, three preliminary steps had to be carried out. First of all, the major Italian urban systems have been identified, following a functional approach that is based on the principle of maximum self-containment of commuters’ flows. Secondly, original indicators have been built to gain a better understanding of cities’ spatial organization and of their patterns of mobility. Thirdly, the relation between these two dimensions has been investigated through a multivariate statistical analysis. The results of the analysis show that variables of spatial organization especially urban dispersion and of mobility patterns are closely related and that cities might be aggregated in five groups, ranging from the most compact and transitoriented cities to the most dispersed and car-oriented ones.

Spatial Structure and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions Due to Commuting: An Analysis of Italian Urban Areas

Cirilli A. and Veneri P. Spatial structure and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to commuting: an analysis of Italian urban areas, Regional Studies. This paper investigates whether and to what extent the spatial configuration of an urban area affects the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to commuting. It disentangles the effect – in terms of commuting patterns and, ultimately, polluting emissions – of several features of urban spatial structure such as compactness, monocentricity, concentration and functional diversity. The main finding of the 111 largest Italian urban areas analysed is that urban spatial configuration is an important determinant of commuting patterns and the associated level of per passenger CO2 emissions. In particular, smaller, more compact and less monocentric areas are associated with lower levels of CO2 per commuter, with socio-demographic characteristics also playing a role.

City size distribution across the OECD: Does the definition of cities matter?

Abstract This study provides new comparative evidence on city size distribution in OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, by using consistently defined functional urban areas (FUAs). FUAs are identified by an algorithm based on population density at grid level and commuting patterns and are thought to better approximate economic agglomerations and their internal spatial organisation. Results show that Zipfs law provides a better description of city size distribution when cities are measured in terms of FUAs rather than using traditional administrative definitions. In addition, Zipfs law describes well city size distribution both at country level and wider spatial scales, that is, by continent and for the whole OECD. Finally, the power law hypothesis – of which Zipfs law is a particular case – was not rejected in most of the countries.

Living Near to Attractive Nature? A Well-Being Indicator for Ranking Dutch, Danish, and German Functional Urban Areas

While nature is widely acknowledged to contribute to people’s well-being, nature based well-being indicators at city-level appear to be underprovided. This study aims at filling this gap by introducing a novel indicator based on the proximity of city-residents to nature that is of high-amenity. High-amenity nature is operationalized by combining unique systematic data on people’s perceptions of what are the locations of attractive natural areas with data on natural land cover. The proposed indicator departs from the usual assumption of equal well-being from any nature, as it approximates the ‘actual’ subjective quality of nature near people’s homes in a spatially explicit way. Such indicator is used to rank 148 ‘cities’ in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. International comparability of the indicator is enhanced by the use of a definition of cities as functional urban areas (FUAs), which are consistently identified across countries. Results demonstrate that the average ‘nearness’ of FUA populations to high amenity nature varies widely across the observed FUAs. A key finding, that complements insights from existing city-level indicators, is that while populations of FUAs with higher population densities may live relatively far from nature in general, they also live, on average, closer to high-amenity nature than inhabitants of lower density FUAs. Our results may stimulate policy-debates on how to combine urban agglomeration with access to natural amenities in order to account for people’s wellbeing.

Urban‐To‐Rural Population Growth Linkages: Evidence from OECD Tl3 Regions

The objective of this paper is to better understand how the population growth rates of rural regions are affected by their closeness to urban regions and by the economic performance of the latter. By means of a cross-sectional analysis of OECD TL3 regions, it identifies the growth spillover effects from the net effect of distance to non-rural places. Distance-based measures are used to approximate the extent to which urban and rural areas are integrated in relational terms. Results shows that positive growth spillovers exist, suggesting that spread effects overcome backwash effects and thus that rural regions benefit from the growth process taking place in urban and intermediate regions. After having controlled for these growth spillovers, the distance from urban and intermediate regions has a negative effect on the population growth rate of rural regions. Nevertheless, both the strength of this effect and the growth spillovers decay with distance. Results further suggest that proximity to urban areas has higher positive influence than to intermediate areas.

The Educational Bias in Commuting Patterns: Micro-Evidence for the Netherlands

This study analyses the relation between education and commuting behaviour of Dutch workers. Results show that, ceteris paribus, higher educated workers commute further, both in terms of distance and time. In addition, higher educated workers are more frequent users of public transport and of bicycles. Furthermore, we find that higher educated workers are relatively more likely to commute towards agglomerated areas and areas that pay relatively high wages, while they are more likely to live in and commute from areas with higher land rents.

The short-run relationship between inequality and growth: evidence from OECD regions during the Great Recession

ABSTRACT This paper provides evidence on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regions during the decade 2003–13. It combines household survey data and macroeconomic databases, covering over 200 comparable regions in 15 OECD countries. The econometric results, based on two alternative sets of instruments, highlight a general negative association between inequalities and economic growth since the start of the economic crisis. This relationship is sensitive to the type of urban structure. Higher inequalities seem to be more detrimental for growth in regions characterized by medium to large-sized cities, while regions characterized by small cities and rural areas are less affected.

Where are the highest living standards? Measuring well-being and inclusiveness in OECD regions

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the levels and trends in living standards across regions in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from the early 2000s to 2012. It applies a measure of welfare called multidimensional living standards (MDLS) at the regional level. The MDLS builds on the equivalent-income approach by combining monetary income with non-monetary (health and jobs) outcomes and taking into account how such outcomes are distributed amongst individuals. Results highlight that regional disparities are amplified when observed through an MDLS lens, as opposed to purely income-based regional disparities. The paper also shows that metropolitan residents experience, on average, higher levels of the MDLS and income than those in other regions.