Evaluating the effectiveness of regulatory growth management programs: An interregional analysis

This dissertation consists of a set of three individual papers. The first paper, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Regulatory Growth Management Programs: An Analytical Framework,” includes an extensive review of recent research on the evolution and effectiveness of growth management in the United States. The literature review is used to inductively develop an analytical framework identifying key independent and dependent variables for comparatively evaluating differentiated growth management programs. The second paper, “Fragmentation and Sprawl: Evidence from Interregional Analysis,” examines the relationship between governmental fragmentation and the outcome of development in United States metropolitan areas. Four dimensions of urban development—density, urbanized land area, property value, and public expenditures on infrastructure—are modeled in a simultaneous equations framework, providing substantive evidence on how political fragmentation contributes to urban sprawl in United States metropolitan areas. Finally, the third paper, “The Spatial and Economic Impacts of Growth Management: An Interregional Analysis of State and Regional Planning Programs,” extends the analysis initiated in the second paper by focusing specifically on the impacts of alternative state and regional planning programs. The original four outcome measures plus population change are modeled in a simultaneous equations framework, illustrating that state based planning programs with strong consistency requirements and enforcement mechanisms hold much promise for reducing urban sprawl, while programs that do not require consistency may inadvertently contribute to it.