RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 On the Link Between Urban Form and Automobile Use: Evidence from German Survey Data
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 51
OP 65
DO 10.3368/le.84.1.51
VO 84
IS 1
A1 Vance, Colin
A1 Hedel, Ralf
YR 2008
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/84/1/51.abstract
AB This study investigates the influence of urban form on automobile travel using household survey data from Germany. Two dimensions of car use are considered: the discrete decision to own a car and the continuous decision of distance traveled. Because these decisions are likely influenced by factors unobservable to the researcher, we apply censored regression models to evaluate the role of biases emerging from sample selectivity. Unlike much of the literature, we find that urban form variables are a significant determinant of both automobile ownership and use, a finding that holds even after using instrumental variables to control for endogeneity. (JEL R14, R41)