City Economics

by Brendan O'Flaherty

Overview

This introductory textbook on the economics of cities is for students of urban and regional policy and of undergraduate economics. It deals with standard topics, including transportation, pollution, housing, and education, but also discusses topics such as segregation, water supply, sewerage, garbage, homelessness, crime, and economic development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674252073
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/30/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	601
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Brendan O’Flaherty is Professor of Economics at Columbia University. His books include The Economics of Race in the United States and City Economics.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
1	Introduction	1
2	Why Proximity Is Good	12
3	Cars, Pollution, and Accidents	34
4	Congestion	52
5	Mass Transit	86
6	Land	116
7	Too Many Cars? Too Much Lawn? Too Much Blight?	145
8	Rules	159
9	Water, Sewers, Fire, and Garbage	209
10	Education	247
11	Race and Space	286
12	Race and Policy	316
13	Housing: The Big Picture	348
14	Housing and Poor People	390
15	Homelessness	423
16	Crime	441
17	Drugs, Guns, and Alcohol	483
18	Urban Economic Development	517
	Epilogue	569
	Glossary	571
	Index	577

What People are Saying About This

City Economics is an engaging book for those who want to know how to make cities better for living, working, and playing. Students, scholars and public officials all can learn from this non-traditional though disciplined-based approach to urban economics.

Richard Arnott

This brilliant book, half textbook, half treatise, provides a magisterial overview of city economics that tempers an optimistic vision of the city's potential for advancing the human condition with a recognition of the constraints imposed by scarcity. In contrast to other urban economics textbooks, this book eschews unnecessary technique, draws widely from the other social sciences, and devotes considerable attention to urban social problems. And in contrast to other urbanist treatises, it stresses analytical reasoning and confronts squarely the difficult tradeoffs involved in almost all policy choices. Written in a conversational style, City Economics—which might be subtitled the very intelligent layman's guide to urban economics—demands concentration but the perseverant reader will be richly rewarded.
— Richard Arnott, Boston College

Susan Wachter

City Economics is an engaging book for those who want to know how to make cities better for living, working, and playing. Students, scholars and public officials all can learn from this non-traditional though disciplined-based approach to urban economics.
— Susan Wachter, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Kenneth T. Jackson

City Economics is provocative, thoughtful, engaging, and challenging. O'Flaherty deals with broad and important themes in imaginative and straightforward ways, and this book will instruct and inspire students for a generation.
— Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University, and editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City

Editorial Reviews

This brilliant book, half textbook, half treatise, provides a magisterial overview of city economics that tempers an optimistic vision of the city's potential for advancing the human condition with a recognition of the constraints imposed by scarcity. In contrast to other urban economics textbooks, this book eschews unnecessary technique, draws widely from the other social sciences, and devotes considerable attention to urban social problems. And in contrast to other urbanist treatises, it stresses analytical reasoning and confronts squarely the difficult tradeoffs involved in almost all policy choices. Written in a conversational style, City Economics—which might be subtitled the very intelligent layman's guide to urban economics—demands concentration but the perseverant reader will be richly rewarded.

Richard Arnott

City Economics is an engaging book for those who want to know how to make cities better for living, working, and playing. Students, scholars and public officials all can learn from this non-traditional though disciplined-based approach to urban economics.

Susan Wachter

This book is firmly located in urban economics, and it adopts a deliberate and provocative approach to the usual subject headings and methodological debates in this area. It will be attractive to undergraduates in geography, economics, sociology and politics as well as to taught masters in courses in public administration, urban policy, public policy, transport and government. Students and teachers will be attracted to its no-nonsense style and its focus on recognisable subject areas...Each chapter is followed by questions suitable for those wanting to check on their progress and for teachers looking for succinct questions to put to students. This approach works well; as a textbook, City Economics has much to recommend it. Indeed, for many readers the text will be a welcome relief from the esoteric world of Pareto optimality, comparative advantage, externalities, consumer surplus and elasticities, concepts that would normally dominate in this kind of book. Brendan O'Flaherty's approach is more likely to reveal the importance and relevance of these concepts and tools than the usual methodological exposition...City Economics is challenging and fascinating.

Times Higher Education Supplement - John Whitelegg

City Economics is provocative, thoughtful, engaging, and challenging. O'Flaherty deals with broad and important themes in imaginative and straightforward ways, and this book will instruct and inspire students for a generation.

Kenneth T. Jackson

This book is firmly located in urban economics, and it adopts a deliberate and provocative approach to the usual subject headings and methodological debates in this area. It will be attractive to undergraduates in geography, economics, sociology and politics as well as to taught masters in courses in public administration, urban policy, public policy, transport and government. Students and teachers will be attracted to its no-nonsense style and its focus on recognisable subject areas...Each chapter is followed by questions suitable for those wanting to check on their progress and for teachers looking for succinct questions to put to students. This approach works well; as a textbook, City Economics has much to recommend it. Indeed, for many readers the text will be a welcome relief from the esoteric world of Pareto optimality, comparative advantage, externalities, consumer surplus and elasticities, concepts that would normally dominate in this kind of book. Brendan O'Flaherty's approach is more likely to reveal the importance and relevance of these concepts and tools than the usual methodological exposition...City Economics is challenging and fascinating.
— John Whitelegg

Times Higher Education Supplement