TY  - JOUR
AU  - Glaeser,Edward L.
AU  - Kahn,Matthew E.
TI  - The Greenness of Cities: Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Urban Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14238
PY  - 2008
Y2  - August 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14238
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14238.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu

Matthew E. Kahn
UCLA Institute of the Environment
Department of Economics
Department of Public Policy
Anderson School of Management
UCLA Law School, Box 951496
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496
Tel: 310/794-4904
Fax: 310/825-9663
E-Mail: mkahn@ioe.ucla.edu
AB  - Carbon dioxide emissions may create significant social harm because of global warming, yet American urban development tends to be in low density areas with very hot summers.  In this paper, we attempt to quantify the carbon dioxide emissions associated with new construction in different locations across the country.  We look at emissions from driving, public transit, home heating, and household electricity usage.  We find that the lowest emissions areas are generally in California and that the highest emissions areas are in Texas and Oklahoma.  There is a strong negative association between emissions and land use regulations.  By restricting new development, the cleanest areas of the country would seem to be pushing new development towards places with higher emissions.   Cities generally have significantly lower emissions than suburban areas, and the city-suburb gap is particularly large in older areas, like New York.
ER  -