Urban Renewal after the Berlin Wall

59 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2013

See all articles by Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment

Wolfgang Maennig

Universität Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Felix Richter

University of Hamburg - School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 23, 2013

Abstract

Urban renewal areas are popular but empirically understudied spatial planning instruments designed to prevent urban decline and induce renewal. We use a quasi-experimental research design to study the effects of 22 renewal areas implemented in Berlin, Germany, to increase housing and living quality in the aftermath of the city’s division during the Cold War period. Our results suggest that the policy has helped reduce (increase) the number of buildings in poor (good) condition by 25% (10%). Property prices increased at an annual rate of 0.4-1.7% according to our preferred estimates. Evidence is weak at best, however, for positive housing externalities. More generally, our findings indicate that the efficiency of program evaluations for place based policies using quasi-experimental methods increases with the number of targeted areas and areas that provide the counterfactual.

Keywords: urban, renewal, revitalization, redevelopment, hedonic regression, quasi-experiment

JEL Classification: D620, H230, R210, R310

Suggested Citation

Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. and Maennig, Wolfgang and Richter, Felix, Urban Renewal after the Berlin Wall (December 23, 2013). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4506, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2371221 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2371221

Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://personal.lse.ac.uk/ahlfeldg/

Wolfgang Maennig

Universität Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences ( email )

Von-Melle-Park 5
Hamburg, 20146
Germany

Felix Richter

University of Hamburg - School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences ( email )

Von-Melle-Park 5
Hamburg, D-20146
Germany

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