Lectures On Urban Economics

A rigorous but nontechnical treatment of major topics in urban economics. Lectures on Urban Economics offers a rigorous but nontechnical treatment of major topics in urban economics. To make the book accessible to a broad range of readers, the analysis is diagrammatic rather than mathematical. Although nontechnical, the book relies on rigorous economic reasoning. In contrast to the cursory theoretical development often found in other textbooks, Lectures on Urban Economics offers thorough and exhaustive treatments of models relevant to each topic, with the goal of revealing the logic of economic reasoning while also teaching urban economics. Topics covered include reasons for the existence of cities, urban spatial structure, urban sprawl and land-use controls, freeway congestion, housing demand and tenure choice, housing policies, local public goods and services, pollution, crime, and quality of life. Footnotes throughout the book point to relevant exercises, which appear at the back of the book. These 22 extended exercises (containing 125 individual parts) develop numerical examples based on the models analyzed in the chapters. Lectures on Urban Economics is suitable for undergraduate use, as background reading for graduate students, or as a professional reference for economists and scholars interested in the urban economics perspective.

A rigorous but nontechnical treatment of major topics in urban economics. Lectures on Urban Economics offers a rigorous but nontechnical treatment of major topics in urban economics. To make the book accessible to a broad range of readers, the analysis is diagrammatic rather than mathematical. Although nontechnical, the book relies on rigorous economic reasoning. In contrast to the cursory theoretical development often found in other textbooks, Lectures on Urban Economics offers thorough and exhaustive treatments of models relevant to each topic, with the goal of revealing the logic of economic reasoning while also teaching urban economics. Topics covered include reasons for the existence of cities, urban spatial structure, urban sprawl and land-use controls, freeway congestion, housing demand and tenure choice, housing policies, local public goods and services, pollution, crime, and quality of life. Footnotes throughout the book point to relevant exercises, which appear at the back of the book. These 22 extended exercises (containing 125 individual parts) develop numerical examples based on the models analyzed in the chapters. Lectures on Urban Economics is suitable for undergraduate use, as background reading for graduate students, or as a professional reference for economists and scholars interested in the urban economics perspective.

This introductory but innovative textbook on the economics of cities is aimed at students of urban and regional policy as well as of undergraduate economics. It deals with standard topics, including automobiles, mass transit, pollution, housing, and education but it also discusses non-standard topics such as segregation, water supply, sewers, garbage, fire prevention, housing codes, homelessness, crime, illicit drugs, and economic development. Its methods of analysis are primarily verbal, geometric, and arithmetic. The author achieves coherence by showing how the analysis of various topics reinforces one another. Thus, buses can tell us something about schools and optimal tolls about land prices. Brendan O'Flaherty looks at almost everything through the lens of Pareto optimality and potential Pareto optimality--how policies affect people and their well-being, not abstract entities such as cities or the economy or growth or the environment. Such traditionalism leads to radical questions, however: Should cities have police and fire departments? Should tax preferences for home ownership be repealed? Should public schools charge for their services? O'Flaherty also gives serious consideration to such heterodox policies as pay-at-the-pump auto insurance, curb rights for buses, land taxes, marginal cost water pricing, and sidewalk zoning.

Bringing urban issues into a modern microeconomic framework, this work uses basic economic analysis to explain why cities exist, where they develop, how they grow and how various activities are arranged within them. Census data is incorporated into the text, and used in charts and tables.

This Second Edition arms real estate professionals with a comprehensive approach to the economic factors that both define and affect modern urban areas. The text considers the economics of cities as a whole, instead of separating them. Emphasis is placed on economic theory and empirical studies that are based in economic theory. The book also explores the policy lessons that can be drawn from the use of economics to understand urban areas. Real estate professionals will find new coverage of urban areas around the world to provide a global perspective.

Lecture Notes in Urban Economics and Urban Policy provides a wide-ranging introduction to urban economics and urban policy by Professor John Yinger, one of the world's leading scholars in urban economics. It draws on his extensive teaching and publication record to provide detailed lecture notes for both a PhD level course in urban economics and a master's level course in urban policy. Both the US and the world populations are becoming more and more urbanized, and these notes are designed to help scholars learn and teach about the factors that determine urban residential structure and that lead to urban problems such as inadequate housing, concentrated poverty, an inequitable distribution of local public services, racial and ethnic discrimination in housing, and traffic congestion. Although these notes focus on the US, many of the lessons in the notes apply to other countries as well. They also draw on Professor Yinger's extensive teaching experience and publication record in urban economics and should prove useful to many scholars who want to teach about or study urban areas. Contents: Urban Economics: The Basic Urban Model 1: AssumptionsThe Basic Urban Model 2: SolutionsThe Basic Urban Model 3: Comparative StaticsMore General Treatment of Housing DemandEstimating Housing DemandThe Urban Transportation SystemMultiple Worksites and Full Labor MarketsHousehold HeterogeneityTesting Urban ModelsNeighborhood AmenitiesBidding and Sorting: The Theory of Local Public FinanceProperty Tax CapitalizationHedonic RegressionsSchool-Quality CapitalizationHousing DiscriminationNotes Based on: "Now You See It, Now You Don't: Why Do Real Estate Agents Withhold Available Houses from Black Customers?"Homeownership Gaps Between Ethnic GroupsResidential Segregation: Measurement, Causes, ConsequencesMortgage Markets and Predatory LendingMortgage DiscriminationUrban Policy: IntroductionEvaluating Social ProgramsHousing Concepts, Household BidsHousehold Sorting and Neighborhood AmenitiesNeighborhood ChangeOverview of Housing MarketsHousing Problems and Federal Housing ProgramsHomelessnessRace and Ethnicity, Prejudice and DiscriminationHousing Discrimination and Its CausesResidential Segregation: Measurement, Causes, ConsequencesMortgage Markets and Predatory LendingDiscrimination in Mortgage LendingPoverty: Concepts and EvidenceConcentrated PovertyWelfare Programs and Principles of Welfare PolicyThe New World of Welfare PolicyUrban Labor MarketsHuman Capital Programs to Promote Community DevelopmentFinancial Capital Programs to Promote Community DevelopmentKey Issues in Studying Urban Crime Readership: Students and academics interested in urban economics and urban policy. Keywords: Urban Economics;Urban Policy;Local Public Finance;Racial and Discrimination in HousingReview: Key Features: The lecture notes in this book cover an extremely wide range of topics in urban economics and urban policy, from mathematical models of urban spatial structure urban problems, such as poverty and discriminationThese notes draw on the extensive teaching and research record of Professor John Yinger, one of the world's leading urban economistsThese notes are a wide-ranging resource for teachers and scholars in the fields of urban economics and urban policy

This up-to-date, highly-accessible book presents a unique combination of both economic theory and real estate applications, providing readers with the tools and techniques needed to understand the operation of urban real estate markets. It examines residential and non-residential real estate markets--from the perspectives of both macro- and micro-economics--as well as the role of government in real estate markets.

Using a series of simple models and economic theory, Glaeser illustrates the primary features of urban economics including the concepts of spatial equilibrium and agglomeration economies.