Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 2h

And the bike lanes on St Denis make the street quiet, so it's actually nice to sit at a patio. And there are so many!

The Main St patios in Vancouver are a hellhole, in comparison. No one wants to sit next to four lanes of traffic.

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 3h

And increase the supply of commercial buildings!

Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4h

Montreal has incredible cycling infrastructure. Way more bike lanes than Vancouver, Bixi is everywhere, and you notice more bikes locked up on the sidewalk.

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 2d

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal

"Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport."

www.economist.com/internationa...

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 17h

Do cities have to write a compliant plan for this to take effect?

Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 23h

Does the zoning allow for apartments? Or is a rezoning required?

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Reposted by Michael Wiebe

Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

Moretti 2021 reports a positive effect of cluster size on patent quality. In my revised comment (currently under review at AER), I show this effect is actually negative. I interpret this as strategic patenting: firms in big cities create low-quality patents for IP lawsuits.

#econsky

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 3d

www.buildingabundance.ca/p/vacancy-ch...

Vacancy chains

How building expensive new homes lowers the price of old homes

www.buildingabundance.ca

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, if larger firms are more likely to be located in bigger cities.

Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

What papers on strategic patenting are relevant here?

Other thoughts?

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

We could test for differential effects for movers joining big vs small firms. (but there are selection issues here)

(Also, the patent data doesn't have proper inventor identifiers; every patent by a John Smith is treated as the same person.)

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

One intuitive explanation for the negative effect is that big firms locate in big cities and are more likely to create strategic patents. So the key mechanism is whether inventors work at big firms when they move to big cities.

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

Or are there subfields with better quality data? Can we measure strategic patents directly, eg. being used later in a lawsuit?

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

Here, quality is measured using citations received. Citations aren't a great measure, since they can be added by lawyers. I also find a negative effect on quality using patent importance from Kelly et al. 2021.

Are there other measures of quality I can use? Triadic?

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

A negative effect on quality means we could have *negative* agglomeration effects when using quality-adjusted patents. But this is counterintuitive: do we really get more innovation by moving an inventor from SF to Detroit?

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 4d

Moretti 2021 reports a positive effect of cluster size on patent quality. In my revised comment (currently under review at AER), I show this effect is actually negative. I interpret this as strategic patenting: firms in big cities create low-quality patents for IP lawsuits.

#econsky

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 11d

Paying for a working paper? Is this a joke?
cepr.org/publications...

#econsky

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 12d

Sorry, streets are banned until you can prove they are safe for cyclists.

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 14d

We need a Housing Protection Act. If you want to increase sewer fees or parking requirements or historical preservation, the burden of proof is on you to produce a Housing Impact Assessment showing there are no adverse impacts on housing supply.

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 15d

What happened to land lift in Auckland before and after AUP? Does anyone even apply for upzonings?

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 18d

Street votes FAQ - YIMBY Alliance

What are street votes? Street votes are a new idea to empower communities

yimbyalliance.org

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 18d

This way, neighborhoods would fight to attract new developments, instead of opposing them.

This also seems politically feasible, since voters would want the chance to be bought out by developers, rather than that money disappearing into a city-wide budget.

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 18d

Then I realized the point is to redirect the surplus away from the government and to the immediate neighbors, so the people most affected by new housing receive the most benefits (instead of going to some general city budget).

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 18d

I used to think the "stuff their mouths with gold" housing strategy was infeasible, because governments already extract 100% of the upzoning surplus (through inclusionary zoning, development charges, etc).

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Reposted by Michael Wiebe

Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 18d

Vancouver (Extra) Special

33' lots
4 and 6 storey single-stair buildings.
3Br accessible flats, adjacent to a park.

(sketchup / ai render)

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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 19d

The ol' max-min.

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