Jordan Rappaport

Jordan Rappaport is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the Bank in 1999 following completing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University. Jordan also holds a bachelors' degree from Brown University, from which he graduated in 1990. Jordan's research focuses on issues related to local growth.  His articles for the Bank's Economic Review primarily focus on U.S. metropolitan area growth and on housing. His empirical research published in peer-reviewed journals has documented the persistence and causes of long run local population growth. His published theoretical research shows that even small costs associated with moving are sufficient to cause high persistence in net population flows and that small productivity and amenity differences can cause very large differences in local population density. Jordan is an associate editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics and the Journal of Regional Science.

Recent Speeches

• PDFRethinking Location
  April 13, 2021
• PDFWhen Is Growth Good?
  June 5, 2019
• External LinkThe Ideal Size of Kansas City
  December 20, 2018
• PDFThe Large Unmet Demand for Housing
  May 17, 2018

Professional Journals and Books

• "Urban Growth Shadows" with David Cuberes and Klaus Desmet, Journal of Urban Economics, May 2021
• "The Settlement of the United States, 1800–2000: The Long Transition Towards Gibrat’s Law" with Klaus Desmet, Journal of Urban Economics, March 2017
• "The Increasing Importance of Quality of Life" Journal of Economic Geography, March 2009
• "Consumption Amenities and City Population Density" Regional Science and Urban Economics, November 2008
• "A Productivity Model of City Crowdedness" Journal of Urban Economics, March 2008
• "Why Do the Poor Live in Cities: The Role of Public Transportation" with Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, Journal of Urban Economics, January 2008
• "Comparing Aggregate Housing Price Measures" Business Economics, October 2007
• "Moving to Nice Weather" Regional Science and Urban Economics, May 2007
  PDFSupplemental Tables | PDFSupplemental Maps | Excel SpreadsheetData File
• "A Bottleneck Capital Model of Economic Development" Journal of Monetary Economics, November 2006
  PDFSupplemental Figures
• "How Does Labor Mobility Affect Income Convergence?" Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, March 2005
• "Why are Population Flows So Persistent?" Journal of Urban Economics, November 2004
  PDFSupplemental Tables and Figures
• "The United States as a Coastal Nation" with Jeffrey Sachs, Journal of Economic Growth, March 2003
  PDFSupplemental Tables, Figures, and Maps | PDFColor Versions of Maps | zipCoastal Proximity Variables

Economic Review Articles

• Hybrid Working, Commuting Time, and the Coming Long-Term Boom in Home Construction
  Volume 107, Number 4, 2022 | PDFMap Supplement A | PDFMap Supplement B | PDFMap Supplement C
• What to Do about Fannie and Freddie: A Primer on Housing Finance Reform
  Volume 105, Number 2, 2020
• The Faster Growth of Larger, Less Crowded Locations
  Fourth Quarter 2018 | zipData and Code Files
• Crowdedness, Centralized Employment, and Multifamily Home Construction
  First Quarter 2017 | Excel SpreadsheetData File | External LinkQ & A
• PDFMillennials, Baby Boomers, and Rebounding Multifamily Home Construction
  Second Quarter 2015 | PDFPresentation Slides (view in presentation mode)
• PDFThe Demographic Shift From Single-Family to Multifamily Housing
  Fourth Quarter 2013 | PDFAppendix
• PDFWhy Does Unemployment Differ Persistently Across Metro Areas?
  Second Quarter 2012
• PDFThe Effectiveness of Homeownership in Building Household Wealth
  Fourth Quarter 2010 | PDFAppendix
• PDFThe Affordability of Homeownership to Middle-Income Americans 
  Fourth Quarter 2008
• PDFA Guide to Aggregate House Price Measures
  Second Quarter 2007
• PDFThe Shared Fortunes of Cities and Suburbs | Excel SpreadsheetData File
  Third Quarter 2005
• PDFU.S. Urban Decline and Growth, 1950 to 2000
  Third Quarter 2003
• PDFWhat Are the Benefits of Hosting a Major League Sports Franchise?
  with Chad Wilkerson, First Quarter 2001

Research Working Papers

• The Size of U.S. Metropolitan Areas
  with McKenzie Humann, RWP 21-02
• How Centralized Is U.S. Metropolitan Employment?
  with Jason P. Brown, Maeve Maloney, and Aaron Smalter Hall, RWP 17-16
• Productivity, Congested Commuting, and Metro Size
  RWP 16-03
• PDFMonocentric City Redux
  RWP 14-09
• PDFA Quantitative System of Monocentric Metros
  RWP 14-03
• PDFThe Settlement of the United States, 1800 to 2000: The Long Transition Towards Gibrat's Law
  with Klaus Desmet, RWP 13-02 (PDFOnline Appendix)
• PDFHow Does Openness to Capital Flows Affect Growth?
  RWP 00-11
• PDFIs the Speed of Convergence Constant?
  RWP 00-10

Economic Bulletin

• Home Prices Are Overvalued but Will Decline Only Gradually
  February 2023
• Hybrid Officing Will Shift Where People and Businesses Decide to Locate
  February 3, 2021 | Studio 10 Interview: The impact of hybrid officing
• Escaping the Housing Shortage
  June 2019
• Pent-Up Demand and Continuing Price Increases: The Outlook for Housing in 2018
  January 2018
• The Large Unmet Demand for Housing
  April 2017
• Consumer Price Inflation and Rising Rents in the West
  with Michael Redmond, December 2016
• PDFThe Weak Outlook for Residential Investment
  October 2016
• PDFThe Limited Supply of Homes
  March 2016
• PDFMillennials, Baby Boomers, and Rebounding Multifamily Home Construction
  June 2015
• PDFTight Credit Conditions Continue to Constrain the Housing Recovery
  July 2014
• PDFThe Long-Term Outlook for U.S. Residential Construction
  December 2013

Other Working Papers

• PDFLocal Growth Empirics
  Center for International Development at Harvard University Working Paper No. 23, July 1999
• PDFExtremist Funding, Centrist Voters, and Candidate Divergence
  Santa Fe Institute Working Paper No. 97-06-059E, June 1997

Additional Publications

• PDFThe Economic Consequences of Weather
  The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition

Selected Data and Code

Stata Code for OLS Estimation with Spatially-Correlated Disturbances. (Based on Timothy Conley, 1999. “GMM Estimation with Cross Sectional Dependence.” Journal of Econometrics 92, 1) -- zipCode File