Course ID: | ECON 4160. 3 hours. |
Course Title: | Urban Economics |
Course Description: | Economic aspects of urbanization with an emphasis on inter- and
intra-metropolitan location decisions of households and firms.
Analysis of land, housing, and transportation markets and of
local public finance and public policy in metropolitan areas. |
Oasis Title: | Urban Economics |
Prerequisite: | ECON 4010 |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered spring semester every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | The course considers the economics of urban and regional
markets with an emphasis on location decisions of people and
firms, growth and development of cities, optimal city size,
transportation, housing markets, social problems, amenities,
and quality of life. Public regulation and spending – including
land use regulation, taxation, and local public services – will
be studied from the perspective of local governments. Students
will have the opportunity to use the tools of microeconomics to
explain a variety of local economic phenomena; incorporate
geography, maps, and spatial analysis into an economics class;
apply the principles of the class to analyze real local
policies and urban problems faced by specific cities around the
world; and ponder why some people believe cities are our
greatest invention. |
Topical Outline: | Review of microeconomics and statistics
Location theory
The economic function of cities
Economic rents
The monocentric city model and empirical tests (The
Alonso/Muth/Mills model)
Urban growth
Agglomeration
City size
Economic development
Economic geography
Real estate markets
Housing and housing policies
The hedonic approach to housing
Local labor markets
Sorting, quality of life and amenities (The Rosen/Robak/Albouy
model)
Tiebout sorting
Zoning and regulations
The property tax
Local public finance
Municipal tax competition
Urban infrastructure
Urban transportation
Urban social problems/poverty
Crime in urban areas
Empirical urban and regional economics |