The intensification of existing urban areas has become a common strategy used by planners to combat the negative aspects associated with unrestrained urban growth. This paper investigates the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of higher density households and residents of both owned and rented tenures in the Greater Toronto Area’s three constituent urban zones, the central city, the inner suburbs and the outer suburbs, between 2001 and 2006. Canada census data at the dissemination area level is used to produce descriptive statistics for the 100 variables included in the analysis. Although research relating to higher density housing is abundant, the consideration and affirmation of higher density housing sub-markets in the Greater Toronto Area based on location and tenure makes this study unique. It becomes clear that the diversity of the higher density housing market must be regarded during the planning process. The findings will be useful to planners for the purposes of infrastructure planning, community planning and aid in the implementation of urban intensification strategies in the Greater Toronto Area.

The intensification of existing urban areas has become a common strategy used by planners to combat the negative aspects associated with unrestrained urban growth. This paper investigates the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of higher density households and residents of both owned and rented tenures in the Greater Toronto Area’s three constituent urban zones, the central city, the inner suburbs and the outer suburbs, between 2001 and 2006. Canada census data at the dissemination area level is used to produce descriptive statistics for the 100 variables included in the analysis. Although research relating to higher density housing is abundant, the consideration and affirmation of higher density housing sub-markets in the Greater Toronto Area based on location and tenure makes this study unique. It becomes clear that the diversity of the higher density housing market must be regarded during the planning process. The findings will be useful to planners for the purposes of infrastructure planning, community planning and aid in the implementation of urban intensification strategies in the Greater Toronto Area.

Urbanisation and suburban housing development are the foci subjects of this thesis. The process of urbanisation may differ from one country to another in terms of socio-economic and political structures, environmental characteristics and also local features. In this context, housing areas at the urban fringe of Ankara were found to have been developed highly compatible with urban land use theories / but different from the process experienced in developed countries. In this thesis, a different dimension of suburbanisation has been discussed with regards to middle and lower-middle income groups&rsquo / suburban movement. The reasons why lower-middle and lower income residents prefer to live at the urban fringe have been found out. Suburban developments have various opportunities for the households such as larger housing unit due to cheap and available land, better urban services, quiet and clean environment and privacy. However, households living in urban fringe who are relatively from middle and lower-middle income are subject to high transportation cost. It is expected that they make a trade off between lower housing units and greater commuting distances and also many opportunities of living in such a suburb. With regard to these, the process of suburbanisation of middle and lower-middle income groups in Ankara within the boundaries of Sincan and Etimesgut Quarters in terms of their social characters and the features of using their urban space and house is discussed according to plan decisions, house builder and households&rsquo / characteristics, urban development pattern of Turkey and Ankara and then Etimesgut and Sincan, considering the theoretical basis and historical process.

Household-level characteristics have been shown to be associated with food insecurity but studies among vulnerable populations are sparse. A food security assessment was developed to determine food security and collect sociodemographic and household level data across San Luis Obispo County. The assessments were administered to vulnerable groups through interviews at multiple sites across the County. Three household characteristics (marital status, number of children in the household and number of workers in the household) were examined in this analysis. A total of 808 surveys were collected, 69% in English and 31% in Spanish. Through ethnicity-stratified sequentially adjusted logistic regression models, the association between food insecurity and household characteristics were tested, controlling for sociodemographic, economic and other potentially mediating variables. In the fully adjusted model for Hispanic/Latino households, associations were observed with number of children in the household and workers in the household, but confidence intervals were wide. In the fully adjusted model for White households, marital status was weakly associated with food insecurity. In both groups, per capita monthly income was strongly associated with food insecurity. Several interrelated household and individual level variables determined a households food security status. Because of this complexity, comprehensive social and economic changes are needed to improve food security in California and the rest of the United States. Also, different processes associated with race/ethnicity and coping strategies with regard to food insecurity should be considered when designing studies, planning policies, and conducting interventions.

本文的研究目的為分析台灣菸品消費的特性。本文選擇採取分量迴歸法作為研究方法，探討在0.05、0.2、0.4、0.6、0.8和0.95的菸品消費分量下，吸菸家戶的菸品消費特性效果為何。資料來源為行政院家庭收支調查報告。 研究結果指出，在0.2到0.8分量的菸品消費量下，菸品的價格彈性為-0.161到-0.231之間。然而，在0.05分量的菸品消費量下，菸品的價格彈性為-0.363，而當位於0.95分量的菸品消費量時，菸品的消費彈性大幅的提升至-0.701。這代表著提高菸品稅或是菸品健康福利捐的政策是可以有效減少吸菸行為的。 更近一步探討，在0.95分量的菸品消費下，菸品的消費彈性大幅的提升至-0.701，對於此現象可能的解釋為，對於較高菸品消費量的家戶大部分為吸菸成癮者，當價格上漲時，消費者會選擇改變吸菸習慣例如戒菸或購買較便宜的香菸。 而值得一提的是，對於吸菸成癮的消費者而言，也存在一定機率會選擇購買非法的走私香菸，而走私香菸不但無法增加我國菸品稅收收入，也無法達成抑制我國吸菸率的政策目標。因此，政府在推動菸品控管政策時，須將菸品消費者的消費特性列入考量，同時也必須加強查緝非法菸品走私的行為，才能更有效達成政策目標。 / The research purpose of the paper was to analyze the characteristics of cigarette consumptions in Taiwan. The paper had adopted quantile regression as research method to discuss the effect of smoking households’ consumption characteristics to the cigarette consumptions in Taiwan at 0.05, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 0.95 quantile. Data for the research was sourced from the “Report on the Survey of Family Income & Expenditure”, conducted by the Executive Yuan, R.O.C. The results showed up that the price elasticities of cigarettes were estimated about -0.161 to -0.231 from 0.2 to 0.8 quantile of cigarettes consumption. However, the price elasticity of cigarettes was -0.363 in 0.05 quantile and raised significantly to -0.701 in 0.95 quantile. Indicating the policy of implementing cigarette tax or “Health and Welfare Surcharge on Tobacco Products” would decrease the smoking behavior effectively. Furthermore, the price elasticity changed to -0.701 in 0.95 quantile, a possible explanation for this phenomenon was that households with higher cigarette consumption were highly addicted to smoking, when the cigarette price increased, they would try to change smoking habit such as buying cheaper cigarettes or quit smoking. However, it is worth noticed that there existed risks of price sensitive smokers seek out measures to purchase less expensive cigarettes when they were highly relied on cigarettes, such as smuggled cigarettes, which may decrease future cessation efforts, and also lose the tax revenue from cigarette excise tax. Therefore, government should also take the consumption characteristics of smoking households into account and also enhance the prevention of illegal consumption behaviors when implementing the tobacco control policy.

The quest towards resolving concerns about transportation energy consumption and emissions across nations has created more interests to investigate factors responsible for households’ car ownership. While literature holds an extensive body of investigation usually compartmentalised in individual different disciplines, limited efforts have been made to promote inter-linkages of this strand of research across different disciplines. To fill this gap, this study developed an integrating Multinomial logit (MNL) model to examine the impact of some rarely-investigated and conventional explanatory variables, including: ethnicity, accommodation tenure, settlement nature, mental belief, environmental concern, geographical regions, household structure, driving licence, number of household income earners and household income, on car ownership. Analysis based on rich data sets of British Household Survey and US Consumer Expenditure Survey found not only the conventional explanatory variables to be significantly linked to the number of cars in the US and UK households, but also the rarely-investigated psychological variables were found to be significantly linked as well. As Socio-demography, Geography and Psychology impact on how people and households process information and assess market offers (e.g., products and services), this study presents findings which have beneficial implications for policymakers and transportations planners, including those who would like to alter people’s behaviour from private car ownership to public transportation use, car sellers in terms of how to identify and reach potential customers, provision of alternative forecasting approaches to car ownership scholars as well as possible consideration for general car ownership decision making. Caution should be taken when interpreting the relationship between psychological factors and car ownership since the psychological factors adopted are measure representatives from databases used with limitations in the factor structure for a representative sample of the countries’ population.