The impact of urban form on vehicle ownership

Driving is the single biggest source of household carbon emissions, and land-use policies that encourage higher density are motivated in part by findings of lower vehicle ownership rates in compact areas. However, many previous estimates suffer from self-selection bias. Utilizing an indicator variable for the presence of same gender children in the household as an instrument for population density, I find a 10% increase in density causes a 0.012 decrease in the size of a household’s vehicle fleet, a reduction of about half a percentage point. •Implements an IV vehicle demand model using the largest US household survey.•An indicator for the presence of same gender children in the home instruments for density.•A 10 percent increase in density causes half a percent decrease in a household’s vehicle fleet.