TY  - JOUR
A1  - Borck, Rainald
T1  - Will skyscrapers save the planet? Building height limits and urban greenhouse gas emissions
JF  - Regional science and urban economics
N2  - This paper studies the effectiveness of building height limits as a policy to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It shows that building height limits lead to urban sprawl and higher emissions from commuting. On the other hand, aggregate housing consumption may decrease, which reduces emissions from residential energy use. A numerical model is used to evaluate whether total GHG emissions may be lower under building height restrictions. Welfare is not concave in the strictness of building height limits, so either no limit or a very strict one (depending on the strength of the externality) might maximize welfare. The paper discusses several extensions, such as congestion, endogenous transport mode choice, migration, and urban heat island effect. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
KW  - Greenhouse gas emissions
KW  - City structure
KW  - Building height limits
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.01.004
SN  - 0166-0462
SN  - 1879-2308
VL  - 58
SP  - 13
EP  - 25
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -