Interacting agents, spatial externalities and the evolution of residential land use patterns
构建了一个包含空间溢出效应的土地转换模型，检验了城乡结合部碎片化开发模式是否源于住宅地块间的负外部性排斥效应，并利用马里兰州郊区的数据找到了支持该理论的实证证据，为低密度蔓延提供了不同于传统经济学的解释。
We develop a model of land use conversion that incorporates local spillover effects among spatially distributed agents. The model is used to test the hypothesis that fragmented patterns of development in rural‐urban fringe areas could be due to negative externalities that create a ‘repelling’ effect among residential land parcels. Identification of the hypothesized interaction effect is complicated by unobserved, spatially correlated heterogeneity. Using an identification strategy that bounds the interaction effect from above, we find empirical evidence that is consistent with a theory of negative interactions among recently developed residential subdivisions in exurban Maryland. The result offers an alternative explanation for low density sprawl to that which is frequently posited in the economics literature and one with potentially quite different efficiency implications.