EAPSI: Spatial Heterogeneity in Preferences for Housing Amenities across Household Compositions: Discrete Choice Models for Residential Location Bundles in Beijing

Krivacsy Kevin R, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This award investigates the ways that households value neighborhood attributes in the residential location decision process in Beijing. It also seeks to understand the ways vehicle ownership policy constraints unique to Chinese cities impacts the bundled decisions of households, along with implementing this into a unique modeling framework to investigate how these preferences vary across the metropolitan area. In early 2011, Beijing restricted the purchase of automobiles by distributing license plates through a lottery. This restriction led to capacity constraints on the choices that were available to each household. Through simulation of counterfactuals, it is possible to test how changes in the number of vehicles allowed may alter the urban landscape and demand for certain location choice characteristics for particular types of households. This project utilizes the joint decision making ability of households to present an integrated discrete choice modeling framework for Beijing that ties together residential location choice with other jointly made decisions such as work location, commuting distance and vehicle ownership to further understanding regarding household bundled residential location choice behavior. The research will be conducted under the supervision of Dr. Wenzhong Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, whose expertise and household survey data will be invaluable to the project. The discrete choice model of bundled residential location choice is estimated using a unique micro-level dataset covering the urbanized areas of Beijing?s metropolitan district. This project develops a modeling framework through the incorporation of a household survey and other relevant data sources to 1) implement a discrete choice model for an investigation into household?s valuation of neighborhood and structure amenities, how this changes across household compositions, and the bundled nature of household decisions, 2) investigate the role of constraints (vehicle ownership in Beijing) on these bundled residential location decisions along with the impact of potential policy changes in vehicle ownership on the location choice process and 3) implement this is a discrete choice modeling framework that allows for spatial correlation across choice alternatives. This NSF EAPSI award supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.