Lectures on Urban Economics

Lectures on Urban Economics – Jan K. Brueckner

Why do cities exist, why are some so large, and why do housing prices and building heights vary so much from place to place? Urban economics uses the tools of economic analysis to answer such questions. In Lectures on Urban Economics, Jan K. Brueckner, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, and a leading scholar in the field, offers a concise and accessible introduction based on his lectures.

The book covers the core topics of urban economics. It begins with why cities form, explaining agglomeration economies, the benefits firms and workers gain from locating near one another, and how city sizes are determined. It then presents the monocentric city model, which explains how land prices, housing prices, building heights and population density change with distance from the city center, and how factors such as commuting costs and income shape urban form.

Further chapters address urban sprawl and its causes and consequences, land-use controls such as zoning, freeway congestion and road pricing, housing markets and housing policy, urban pollution, crime, local public goods and the role of local governments, and the economics of property taxes.

Each chapter explains concepts with clear intuition and simple diagrams, using mathematics where needed but keeping it at a level accessible to upper-level undergraduate students. Policy implications are emphasized throughout.

Clear and rigorous, Lectures on Urban Economics is a valuable textbook for students of economics, urban planning, public policy and real estate, and a useful reference for researchers and policymakers. As a pre-owned academic text, it may contain previous notes or markings.