Sara Bagagli is an Assistant Professor of Real Estate Economics and Finance at London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research contributes to our understanding of what drives the (unequal) distribution of people and economic activity across space, focusing on the role of transportation infrastructure and urban forms. Her 2023 paper, The (Express)Way to Segregation: Evidence from Chicago, examines the long-established view that highways acted to increase segregation. Did expressways increase racial segregation in urban centers? Professor Bagagli establishes that expressways contributed to racial segregation in Chicago through two channels: (1) local price and amenity effects and (2) barrier effects. From these findings, she then constructs a structural urban model to study the link between urban barriers and racial preferences in shaping the allocation of people across space.

Appendices:

Sara Bagagli: Ann Petry, The Street.

Greg Shill: Pete Saunders, Two Chicagos, Defined.

Jeff Lin: Hammond's Pictorial Travel Atlas of Scenic America. Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff and Greg can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social, and @gregshill.com.

Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage

The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Zach Liscow is Professor of Law at Yale Law School. From 2022-23, he was the Chief Economist at the White House Office of Management and Budget. We discuss his recent article, Procurement and Infrastructure Costs (with William Nober and Cailin Slattery), which collects new project-level data and surveys of state DOT officials to document variation in infrastructure procurement costs across states and identify cost drivers, including capacity and competition.

Appendices: Zach Liscow: Robert Kagan, Adversarial Legalism Greg Shill: Brian Potter, Why Can’t the U.S. Build Ships? Jeff Lin: Abhay Aneja & Guo Xu, Strengthening State Capacity: Civil Service Reform and Public Sector Performance during the Gilded Age Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff, Greg, and Zach can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social, @gregshill.com, and @zliscow.bsky.social.

Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Professor Erick Guerra is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. We discuss his recent article,Urban Roadway in America: The Amount, Extent, and Value (with Gilles Duranton & Xinyu Ma), which provides the first comprehensive estimate of the amount, share, and value of roadways across over 300 U.S. metro areas.

Appendices:

Erick Guerra: Erick Guerra, Overbuilt: The High Costs and Low Rewards of US Highway Construction.

Greg Shill: Jeffrey Brinkman & Jeffrey Lin, Freeway Revolts! The Quality of Life Effects of Highways.

Jeff Lin: Foursquare OS Places.

Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff and Greg can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social and @gregshill.com. Greg also has a Substack newsletter.

Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage

The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.