Household carbon emissions from driving and center city quality of life

In metropolitan areas with a vibrant center city, residents are more likely to live downtown, spend more time downtown and use public transit more. Due to these factors, we posit that household carbon emissions from the transportation sector will be lower in metropolitan areas with more vibrant center cities. We use metro-level and household-level data to test this hypothesis. In metropolitan areas where a larger share of college graduates live downtown, the center city's population grows faster and more people use public transit and drive less. We document that carbon emissions for a standardized household are lower in metropolitan areas featuring a higher concentration of college graduates living downtown.