Research Reports from the Department of Operations

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

1-1-1966

Abstract

This thesis presents an empirical investigation of the determinants of residential land values in the Cleveland area. It is a part of an overall study on urban systems, which was sponsored by the Cleveland Seven County Land Use and Transportation Study (SCOTS). The aim of this research is to establish a functional relationship between land values and a set of socio-economic variables. We are particularly interested in the effects of distance and travel time from the central business district to residential areas. To the best of our knowledge, only a few empirical studies such as ours have been undertaken in the past. However, numerous theoretical studies, especially since the beginning of this century, have been devoted to cities. Disciplines like Economics, Sociology, and Geography have developed specialized branches that study urban problems. Most of this work has remained descriptive and has not been oriented toward decision-making or urban planning. This can be explained by the fact that, by their nature, cities are complex entities with a plurality of objectives and a plurality of decision-makers. Also, many objectives are usually not explicitly formulated, and many decision-makers are unknown. It is hoped that the work undertaken here will be of some help in the intricate process that starts with the observation of facts and goes up to the implementation of an optimum model. In the present thesis, no optimization model will be presented. Only a functional relationship is investigated. Thus, it can be considered as the very first step of an Operations Research study: that of finding what kind of relationship exists among the variables. To that end, the tools of Econometrics are going to be used. Econometrics, it is recalled, is the science of measuring economic relationships. It is the fusion of Economics and Statistical Methods. However, this thesis may be considered an investigation in urban sociology or urban geography, which shows how much urban studies are an interdisciplinary area. [Likely published circa 1966.]

Keywords

Operations research, Land use--Economic aspects--Ohio--Cleveland, Urban economics, Real property--Valuation--Ohio--Cleveland, Transportation--Ohio--Cleveland--Planning, Econometrics, Cleveland (Ohio)--Economic conditions

Publication Title

Technical Memorandums from the Department of Operations, School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

Issue

Technical memorandum no. 59

Rights

This work is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded for personal or academic use

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