Urban economics / Arthur O'Sullivan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Sullivan, Arthur.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban economics.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 404 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

Sixth edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : McGraw-Hill/Irwin, [2007]

Summary:

The Sixth Edition of Urban Economics represents a thorough revision. The book has been reorganized and rewritten to create a sleek and up-to-date text. With its active learning approach and improved topic flow, Urban Economics incorporates the remarkable progress in the field of urban economics from the last ten to fifteen years. This new edition is divided into six sections: Part I explains why cities exist and what causes them to grow or shrink, Part II examines the market forces that shape cities and the role of government in determining land-use patterns, Part III looks at the urban transportation system, Part IV uses a model of the rational criminal to explore the causes of urban crime and its spatial consequences, Part V explains the unique features of the housing market and examines the effects of government housing policies, Part VI explains the rationale for our fragmented system of local government and explores the responses of local governments to intergovernmental grants and the responses of taxpayers to local taxes.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction and Axioms of Urban Economics 1

What Is Urban Economics? 1

What Is a City? 2

Why Do Cities Exist? 3

The Five Axioms of Urban Economics 6

References and Additional Reading 12

Appendix Census Definitions 12

Urban Population 12

Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas 13

Principal City 14

Part I Market Forces in the Development of Cities 15

Chapter 2 Why Do Cities Exist? 17

A Region Without Cities-Backyard Production 17

A Trading City 18

Trading Cities in Urban History 20

A Factory Town 22

The Industrial Revolution and Factory Cities 24

A System of Factory Towns 27

Materials-Oriented Firms and Processing Towns 29

Chapter 3 Why Do Firms Cluster? 34

Sharing Intermediate Inputs 35

Sharing a Labor Pool 37

Labor Matching 40

Knowledge Spillovers 43

Self-Reinforcing Effects Cause Industry Clusters 43

Evidence of Localization Economies 46

Urbanization Economies 47

Other Benefits of Urban Size 49

Chapter 4 City Size 55

Utility and City Size 55

A System of Cities 58

Specialized and Diverse Cities 60

Differences in City Size 63

The Size Distribution of Cities 66

Chapter 5 Urban Growth 72

Economic Growth: Increase in Per-Capita Income 72

City-Specific Innovation and Income 73

Human Capital and Economic Growth 75

Urban Employment Growth 76

Public Policy and Equilibrium Employment 83

Projecting Changes in Total Employment 87

Who Benefits from Increased Employment? 88

Appendix The Regional Context of Urban Growth 93

The Neoclassical Model 93

Regional Concentration and Dispersion in the U.S. 96

References and Additional Reading 97

Part II Land Rent and Land Use Patterns 99

Chapter 6 Urban Land Rent 101

Introduction to Land Rent 101

Bid-Rent Curves for the Manufacturing Sector 102

Bid-Rent Curves for the Information Sector 104

Office Bid-Rent Curves with Factor Substitution 108

Housing Prices 112

The Residential Bid-Rent Curve 116

Relaxing the Assumptions: Time Costs, Public Services, Taxes, Amenities 118

Land-Use Patterns 119

Appendix Consumer and Factor Substitution 124

Consumer Choice and the Law of Demand 125

Input Choice and Factor Substitution 127

Chapter 7 Land-Use Patterns 130

The Spatial Distribution of Jobs and People 130

A Closer Look at Subcenters 135

Urban Density 138

The Rise of the Monocentric City 139

The Demise of the Monocentric City 142

Urban Sprawl 145

Appendix The Monocentric Model and Applications 153

The Monocentric Model 153

Income and Location 155

A General Equilibrium Model of a Monocentric City 157

Applying the Concepts 160

Chapter 8 Neighborhood Choice 161

Diversity versus Segregation 161

Sorting for Local Public Goods 162

Neighborhood Externalities 166

Neighborhood Choice 167

Schools and Neighborhood Choice 173

Crime and Neighborhood Choice 176

Racial Segregation 177

Consequences of Segregation 179

Chapter 9 Zoning and Growth Controls 185

Land-Use Zoning 185

The Legal Environment of Zoning 190

A City Without Zoning? 193

Growth Control: Urban Growth Boundaries 194

Other Growth-Control Policies 200

Part III Urban Transportation 205

Chapter 10 Externalities from Autos 207

Congestion Externalities 209

The Congestion Tax 213

Practicalities of the Congestion Tax 216

Alternatives to a Congestion Tax 219

The Road Capacity Decision 221

Autos and Air Pollution 224

Motor Vehicle Accidents 226

Automobiles and Poverty 231

Chapter 11 Mass Transit 235

Mass Transit Facts 235

Choosing a Travel Mode: Commuter Choices 238

Designing a Transit System 243

Subsidies for Public Transit 245

Deregulation: Contracting and Paratransit 248

Transit and Land-Use Patterns 250

Mass Transit and Poverty 251

Part IV Urban Crime 255

Chapter 12 Crime 257

Crime Facts 257

The Rational Criminal 259

The Equilibrium Quantity of Crime 265

Legal Opportunities and Education 268

Applications: Big-City Crime and the Crime Drop 270

How Much Crime? 273

The Role of Prisons 276

Part V Housing 281

Chapter 13 Why Is Housing Different? 283

Heterogeneity and Hedonics 283

Durability, Deterioration, and Maintenance 284

Moving Costs and Consumer Disequilibrium 290

The Filtering Model of the Housing Market 292

Chapter 14 Housing Policy 301

Public Housing 301

Housing Vouchers 307

Community Development and Urban Renewal 310

Which Housing Policy is Best? 313

Subsidies for Mortgage Interest 313

Rent Control and Rent Regulation 316

Part VI Local Government 321

Chapter 15 The Role of Local Government 323

The Role of Local Government 324

Local Public Goods: Equilibrium versus Optimum 325

Natural Monopoly 329

Externalities 331

Federalism and Metropolitan Government 333

A Closer Look at the Median Voter Result 334

Chapter 16 Local Government Revenue 341

Who Pays the Residential Property Tax? 342

From Models to Reality 350

The Tiebout Model and the Property Tax 352

Limits on Property Taxes 353

Intergovernmental Grants 355

Applications: Welfare and Education Grants 359

Appendix Tools of Microeconomics 367.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

0072984767

9780072984767

0071244719

9780071244718

OCLC:

61748520