The effects of spatial spillovers on the provision of urban environmental amenities

Résumé En Fr

As land take favours the development of new artificial areas in most cities, urban green spaces (UGSs) play a key role for the quality of life and the attractiveness of cities. This paper highlights the ins and outs of the decision making ‐ process in order to stress the issues inherent to the provision of UGSs. We examine the influence of spatial spillovers in order to identify strategic interactions between neighbouring municipalities in a sample of French municipalities. Our aim is to assess the efficiency of local policies as strategic behaviours may lead to a non optimal level of UGSs. For this purpose we conducted a survey with municipal greening services given the absence of centralized data regarding the surfaces and spending for UGSs. The analysis is based on spatial econometrics techniques. Using different weight matrices, we find that data follow a spatial lag pattern. The results suggest that municipalities tend to imitate their neighbours for the provision of UGSs. It is also found that environmental amenities such as coastal area and vineyards are substitutes to UGSs.

L'urbanisation croissante favorise l'artificialisation des sols dans la plupart des villes. Dans ce contexte, les espaces verts urbains jouent un rôle clé pour la qualité de vie et l'attractivité des villes. Ce travail met en lumière les tenants et les aboutissants du processus de prise de décision afin de soulever les questions inhérentes à la fourniture des espaces verts. Nous examinons l'influence des externalités de débordement afin d'identifier les interactions stratégiques entres les communes voisines dans un échantillon de villes françaises. Notre objectif est d'évaluer l'efficacité des politiques publiques locales en identifiant les comportements stratégiques. A cette fin, nous avons mené une enquête auprès des services Espaces Verts en raison de l'absence de données centralisées sur les superficies et les dépenses engagées pour les espaces verts. Nous traitons les données à l'aide des techniques d'économétrie spatiale. Les résultats suggèrent que les communes ont tendance à imiter les communes voisines pour la fourniture des espaces verts. Il est également constaté que les dotations naturelles telles que les zones côtières et les vignes sont des substituts aux espaces verts. As land take favours the development of new artificial areas in most cities, urban green spaces (UGSs) play a key role for the quality of life and the attractiveness of cities. This paper highlights the ins and outs of the decision making-process in order to stress the issues inherent to the provision of UGSs. We examine the influence of spatial spillovers in order to identify strategic interactions between neighbouring municipalities in a sample of French municipalities. Our aim is to assess the efficiency of local policies as strategic behaviours may lead to a non optimal level of UGSs. For this purpose we conducted a survey with municipal greening services given the absence of centralized data regarding the surfaces and spending for UGSs. The analysis is based on spatial econometrics techniques. Using different weight matrices, we find that data follow a spatial lag pattern. The results suggest that municipalities tend to imitate their neighbours for the provision of UGSs. It is also found that environmental amenities such as coastal area and vineyards are substitutes to UGSs.