A presentation by Martin Vinæs Larsen, Associate Professor, Aarhus. This event is part of the Political Economy Lunch Seminar (PELS).
Responding to important societal challenges, such as managing the housing affordability crisis, requires a substantial physical transformation of local communities. However, such transformations are often met by intense local opposition. Traditionally, this opposition has been explained in terms of homeowners' financial incentives to protect their home values or a desire to keep out poor people and racial minorities. In this article, we argue that opposition arises from a desire to preserve the physical character of your own neighborhood. We explore the empirical viability of this local preservationism explanation using a large-scale vignette survey experiment where citizens evaluate a hypothetical project placed on an individually tailored map of their neighborhood. Consistent with the local preservationism explanation, we find that opposition to new development projects is concentrated among residents who have strong feelings about how their local area looks, and that citizens are much less nimby towards projects if they fit in with the built environment in their neighborhood.
No prior registration necessary. If you have any questions, please reach out to Amanda Slater at slater[at]hertie-school[dot]org