ECON2205 - 01 - Urban Economics

Three-quarters of the U.S. population and approximately half of the world's population live in cities. If economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to use scarce resources, then this course is the study of one scarce resource in particular: space. We will focus on the economics of cities and urban areas. We will ask questions such as: Why do cities exist? Why do some cities/areas of metropolitan areas grow more rapidly than others? How do firms and households decide where to locate within cities? What determines the price of land and how this varies across space? What are the spatial dimensions of local government policy and the relationship between the city, suburban and state governments? How do these factors influence urban problems such as housing, poverty, crime and economic development? A secondary theme of this course will be to consider the particular economy of Boston as our urban home.