Borrowed size refers to the idea that small cities near larger metropolitan centres can reap the advantages of large agglomerations, but without the costs of agglomeration. The study explores whether broadband internet helps such smaller cities to enjoy the labour market benefits of a larger city. Using Swedish micro-data from 2007 to 2015, together with unique data on broadband, suggestive evidence is found that broadband indeed allows smaller cities to reap such benefits. Borrowed size is primarily driven by the overall penetration of broadband in the place of residence, rather than by broadband availability at the residence.

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It is increasingly recognized that urbanization economies – the benefits of living in cities – can be generated by proximity to large cities (OECD 2015). Several scholars have put forward that places near other large cities are increasingly able to ‘borrow size’ of their neighbours to generate these economies, and that this may explain recent patterns of (economic) growth across European cities, whereby the largest cities have not necessarily had the highest growth rates (Dijkstra et al. 2013, Burger and Meijers 2016). These studies suggest that Europe’s unique polycentric urban structure increasingly allows urbanization benefits to be generated by proximity to large agglomerations, due to improvements in physical and digital infrastructure. Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that increasing the effective density of regions by improving physical transportation infrastructure leads to higher levels of urbanization economies (Graham 2019). For improvements in digital infrastructure however, such evidence is missing. In this thesis I attempt to fill this gap, and contribute to the discussion of whether information technology enables places in proximity of large cities to ‘borrow’ urbanization economies? To understand the relation between IT and borrowed size it is important to have a plausible theoretical mechanism. In the introduction of this thesis I have put forward such a theoretical link, that is based on the relation between ubiquitous online information and travel behaviour. In short, I expect that in some cases IT may complement longer distance travel for jobs and local products, which means that in these markets urban scale economies (including better matching and wider product variety) are generated and enjoyed across a greater geographical scale. Based on this theoretical link, I devised two research questions. 1. To what extent does information technology increase the geographical extent of local labour and product markets? 2. To what extent has the advent of information technology led to better local (labour or product) market outcomes in places in proximity of large cities?@en

Teleworking may increase the willingness to accept a longer commute. This paper presents new evidence of the effect of teleworking on the length of commutes. We use novel panel data from the Netherlands, for the years 2008-2018, and find stronger effects compared to studies that use older data. Between 2008 and 2018 however, the effect was remarkably stable: workers that started teleworking increased their commutes by 12 percent on average. We analyse heterogeneity in the effect of teleworking on commuting across different levels of urbanization and across occupations. This study stresses the effects of teleworking on the geographical scale of labour markets, and provides important inputs for policymakers that aim to promote teleworking.@en

Over the past two decades, research in regional science has paid considerable attention to the benefits of urban density and proximity, even though there has been tremendous progress within the same period in technologies that ease the friction of distance (e.g. mobile communication, high-speed internet). Many scholars argue that in spite of falling transportation costs for tradable goods and the proliferation of information and communication technology cities will always have a vital edge in facilitating face-to-face communication. We argue that even if this is the case, there still remains a host of benefits that have come to rely less on urban density and this will have implications for the future of cities. In the current study we focus on one particular type of benefit associated with urban size and density – namely, the availability of a specialized array of urban amenities. More precisely, we use regional data on the distribution of restaurants in the Netherlands, and differentiate them according to their cuisine type. We explore how the presence of cuisine variety relates to population density and diversity, and whether these relationships vary across different city sizes. We find that the explanatory power of population density and diversity diminishes over time, especially in smaller cities. We argue that these trends support the hypothesis that a reduction of spatial information frictions reduces the need for urban density, as benefits associated with larger cities – such as cuisine variety – can be increasingly found in smaller cities. @en

This paper addresses the interaction between information technology (IT) and agglomeration. The literature distinguishes two types of interactions, namely a substitution effect and a complementarity effect. We conceptualise a third effect, namely a ‘spillover’ mechanism, by which IT allows places in close proximity of large cities to ‘borrow size’ and sustain greater product variety. We test these mechanisms using detailed data on restaurant cuisine variety in the Netherlands, and the IT dimension is measured through the use and penetration of online restaurant reviews. We find that IT complements cuisine variety in cities, and induces spillovers to smaller places near larger ones, allowing smaller places to sustain ‘rare’ cuisines that were traditionally only present in larger cities. As such, IT leads to the spread of agglomeration benefits such as local product variety over larger territories.@en

Despite the many uncertainties of life in cities, promises of economic prosperity, social mobility and happiness have fuelled the imagination of generations of urban migrants in search of a better life. Access to jobs, housing and amenities, and fewer restrictions of personal choices are some of the perceived advantages of cities, characterised here as ‘urban promises’. But while discourses celebrating the triumph of cities became increasingly common, urban rewards are not available everywhere and for everyone. Alongside opportunity, cities offer inequality, conflict and poor living conditions. Their narrative of promise has been persistent across different times and places, but the outcomes and experiences of urban life compare poorly with the overoptimistic expectations of many newcomers. And yet, millions still come and stay regardless of odds, raising the question why we have such positive and persistent expectations about cities. To examine this question, this paper considers the process of urban migration from the perspective of decision-making under uncertainty. It discusses how decisions and evaluations are based on imperfect information and offers a novel contribution by examining how the cognitive biases and heuristics which restrict human rationality shape our responses to urban promises. This approach may allow a better understanding of how people make decisions regarding urban migration, how they perceive their urban experiences and evaluate their life stories. We consider the prospects and limitations of the behavioural approach and discuss how biases favouring narratives of bright urban futures can be exploited by ‘triumphalist’ accounts of cities which neglect their embedded injustices.

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It is generally found that workers are more inclined to accept a job that is located farther away from home if they have the ability to work from home one day a week or more (telecommuting). Such findings inform us about the effectiveness of telecommuting policies that try to alleviate congestion and transport-related emissions, but they also stress that the geography of labour markets is changing due to information technology. We argue that estimates of the effect of working from home on commuting time may be biased because of sorting based on residential- and commuting preferences. In this paper we investigate the relationship between telecommuting and commuting time, controlling for preference-based sorting. We use 7 waves of data from the Dutch Labour Supply Panel and show that on average telecommuters have higher marginal cost of one-way commuting time, compared to non-telecommuters. We estimate the effect of telecommuting on commuting time using a fixed effects approach, and we show that preference-based sorting biases cross-sectional results upwards. This suggests that the bias due to sorting based on residential preferences is strongest. Working from home allows people to accept 5% longer commuting times on average, and every additional 8 h of working from home are associated with 3.5% longer commuting times.@en

We estimate the effect of parking occupancy on distances walked between parking and residential locations in Amsterdam. Using data from scanner cars, we show that walking distances only increase when the occupancy rate exceeds 85 per cent. However, the marginal effect of occupancy on walking beyond 85 per cent is limited: every parker imposes 8 m on each subsequent parker. Our analysis suggests it is optimal to have almost all parking spaces occupied late in the evening when few residents aim to park. Our result has important consequences for policy makers who use residential parking permits to prevent cruising for parking.@en

It is generally found that workers are more inclined to accept a job that is located farther away from home if they have the ability to work from home one day a week or more (telecommuting). Such findings inform us about the effectiveness of telecommuting policies that try to alleviate congestion and transport related emissions, but they also stress that the geography of labour markets is changing due to information technology. We argue that estimates of the effect of working from home on commuting time are biased downward because most studies ignore preference based sorting (self-selection): workers who dislike commuting, and hence have shorter commutes, might also be more likely to work from home. In this paper we investigate to what extent working from home affects the willingness to accept a longer commute and we control for preference based sorting. We use 7 waves of data from the Dutch Labour Supply Panel and show that on average telecommuters have a 50 percent higher marginal cost of one-way commuting time, compared to non-telecommuters. We estimate the effect of telecommuting on commuting time using a fixed effects approach and we show that preference based sorting biases cross-sectional results 27-28 percent downwards. Working from home allows people to accept 5.7 percent longer commuting times on average, and every additional 8 hours of working from home are associated with 3 percent longer commuting times.@en

Despite the many negative aspects of life in cities, urban promises of economic prosperity, freedom and happiness have fuelled the imagination of generations of migrants, who have flocked to cities in search of a better life, invariably exaggerating the opportunities and neglected the potential disadvantages of their choice. This paper uses insights from psychological literature to better understand why people have such strong, positive and apparently overrated expectations about cities. We dwell into concepts of bounded rationality to describe the cognitive biases and heuristics affecting decision-making under uncertainty and apply them to the way individuals perceive and act upon the promises of urban life. By linking this literature to urban theory, we can better understand how individuals make their decisions about moving to and living in cities. We thereby offer an understanding of urbanisation and migration processes departing from economic rationality assumptions and explain the remarkable attractive force of cities throughout human history. Finally, we discuss the ways in which human biases in favour of city narratives and bright urban futures can be exploited by ‘triumphalist’ accounts of cities in policy and media, which neglect the embedded injustices and structural problems of urban life.@en

Het hebben van keuze uit verschillende soorten restaurants wordt gezien als een typisch stedelijk consumptievoordeel. Immers, daar vind je een grote variëteit aan restaurants met keukens uit alle windstreken. Echter, het online delen van ervaringen in restaurants, op recensiewebsites zoals Iens.nl zorgt er via een aantal mechanismen voor dat toegang tot een variëteit aan restaurantkeukens steeds minder voorbehouden is aan alleen stedelingen. Online informatie in de vorm van reviews neemt onzekerheid weg over bestemmingen, waardoor consumenten bereid zijn verder te reizen. Dit vergroot het marktgebied van restaurants. Bovendien maakt online informatie ‘comparison-shopping’ mogelijk zonder dat restaurants ruimtelijk geconcentreerd zijn. Het delen van restaurantervaringen leidt zodoende zowel aan de aanbodzijde (vestigingsgedrag restaurants) als aan de vraagzijde (restaurantkeuze van mensen) tot meer ruimtelijke vrijheden. Wij stellen dat er hierdoor sprake is van een ontstedelijking van de consumptievoordelen voorheen voorbehouden aan de stad. Onze stelling wordt onderbouwd door een analyse met gegevens uit verschillende bronnen. We tonen hiermee aan dat sinds het jaar 2000: (1) het gebruik van recensiewebsites voor restaurants fors is gestegen; (2) de reisbereidheid voor vrijetijdsvoorzieningen is toegenomen; en (3) de relatie tussen de aanbodverscheidenheid van restaurants en de grootte van een gemeente minder sterk is geworden. Uiteindelijk tonen we aan dat (4) een hoger aandeel op Iens.nl geregistreerde restaurants leidt tot meer variatie in restaurantkeukens. ICT maakt dat agglomeratievoordelen steeds minder bepaald worden door de omvang van een stad, wat pleidooien in de planologie en economie om metropolen/grootsteden te ontwikkelen in een verfrissend perspectief plaatst.@en