Economic Development of Urban Areas

In this dissertation I study the development of urban areas. At the aggregate level I investigate how they may be affected by climate change policies and by being designated the seat of governmental power. At the household level I study with coauthors how microfinance could improve the health of urban residents. In Chapter 1, I investigate how local employment may be affected by electricity price increases, which is a likely consequence of climate change policies. I outline how previous studies that find large, negative effects may be biased. To overcome these biases I develop a novel estimation strategy that blends border-pair regressions with the synthetic control methodology. I show the conditions for consistent estimation. Using this estimator, I find no effect of contemporaneous price changes on employment. Consistent with the longer time-frame for manufacturing decisions, I do find evidence for negative effects from perceived permanent price shocks. These estimates are much smaller than previous research has found. National capital cities are often substantially larger than other cities in their countries. In Chapter 2, I investigate whether there is a causal effect from being a capital by studying the 1960 relocation of the Brazilian capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. Using a synthetic controls strategy I find that losing the capital had no significant effects on Rio de Janeiro in terms of population, employment, or gross domestic product (GDP). I find that Brasília experienced large and significant increases in population, employment, and GDP. I find evidence of large spillovers from the public to the private sector. Chapter 3 investigates how microfinance could increase the uptake of costly health goods. We study the effect of time payments (micro-loans or micro-savings) on willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a water filter among households in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. We find that time payments significantly increase WTP: compared to a lump-sum up-front purchase, median WTP increases 83% with a six-month loan and 115% with a 12-month loan. We find that households are quite patient with respect to consumption of health inputs. We find evidence for the presence of credit and savings constraints.

Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance: Design Implications of an Urban Case Demonstration in Baltimore, Maryland

This research-design thesis explores the implementation of Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance (RSC) as a retrofit of an existing impervious drainage system in a small catchment in the degraded Jones Falls watershed in Baltimore City. An introduction to RSC is provided, placing its development within a theoretical context of novel ecosystems, biomimicry and Nassauer and Opdam’s (2008) model of landscape innovation. The case site is in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood on City-owned land adjacent to rowhomes, open space and an access point to a popular wooded trail along a local stream. The design proposal employs RSC to retrofit an ill-performing stormwater system, simultaneously providing a range of ecological, social and economic services; water quantity, water quality and economic performance of the proposed RSC are quantified. While the proposed design is site-specific the model is adaptable for retrofitting other small-scale impervious drainage systems, providing a strategic tool in addressing Baltimore City’s stormwater challenges.

Understanding Urban Stormwater Denitrification in Bioretention Internal Water Storage Zones

Free-draining bioretention systems commonly demonstrate poor nitrate removal. In this study, column tests verified the necessity of a permanently saturated zone to target nitrate removal via denitrification. Experiments determined a first-order denitrification rate constant of 0.0011 min-1 specific to Willow Oak woodchip media. A 2.6-day retention time reduced 3.0 mgN/L to below 0.05 mg-N/L. During simulated storm events, hydraulic retention time may be used as a predictive measurement of nitrate fate and removal. A minimum 4.0 hour retention time was necessary for in-storm denitrification defined by a minimum 20% nitrate removal. Additional environmental parameters, e.g., pH, temperature, oxidation-reduction potential, and dissolved oxygen, affect denitrification rate and response, but macroscale measurements may not be an accurate depiction of denitrifying biofilm conditions. A simple model was developed to predict annual bioretention nitrate performance. Novel bioretention design should incorporate bowl storage and large subsurface denitrifying zones to maximize treatment volume and contact time.