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Working Papers

Nine Causes of Sprawl

Working paper #541
Richard K. Green

Since the late 1990s, sprawl has become a leading public policy issue. The author presents nine important causes of sprawl that include: the rent gradient; demographic changes; growing affluence; car ownership; different levels of government services in suburbs and cities; racial discrimination; land assembly issues; federal income tax policy; and land use regulations. He concludes that if policy makers are truly concerned about the malignant underpinnings of sprawl-discrimination, fiscal zoning, transportation that imposes social costs, federal tax policy, and regulations that needlessly consume land for residential development-then they will deal with these causes directly.

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