This volume embodies a problem-driven and theoretically informed approach to bridging frontier research in urban economics and urban/regional planning. The authors focus on the interface between these two subdisciplines that have historically had an uneasy relationship. Although economists were among the early contributors to the literature on urban planning, many economists have been dismissive of a discipline whose leading scholars frequently favor regulations over market institutions, equity over efficiency, and normative prescriptions over positive analysis. Planners, meanwhile, even as they draw upon economic principles, often view the work of economists as abstract, not sensitive to institutional contexts, and communicated in a formal language spoken by few with decision making authority. Not surprisingly, papers in the leading economic journals rarely cite clearly pertinent papers in planning journals, and vice versa. Despite the historical divergence in perspectives and methods, urban economics and urban planning share an intense interest in many topic areas: the nature of cities, the prosperity of urban economies, the efficient provision of urban services, efficient systems of transportation, and the proper allocation of land between urban and environmental uses. In bridging this gap, the book highlights the best scholarship in planning and economics that address the most pressing urban problems of our day and stimulates further dialog between scholars in urban planning and urban economics.

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.

The book delivers an inspiring, first-hand insight into the state of urban competitiveness and how cities may make the best use of it. . . Kresl gives a well-informed insight into urban problems and related strategies, based on a carefully deployed comparative approach. Markus Hesse, Growth and Change This volume delves into issues overlooked in many texts about the EU and will be useful for courses in European and international studies and local government. Recommended. G.T. Potter, Choice Peter Kresl brings unique and invaluable empirical evidence, from the early 1990s through to 2005, to examine the relationship between urban competitiveness and economic-strategic planning for ten internationally networked cities within the EU. Planning Cities for the Future links the study of urban economic competitiveness with urban planning and is able to ascertain the crucial factors for success in this area of public policy. These factors include effective governance, leadership and monitoring of performance. The author also reveals how economic turbulence macro-economic stagnation, the emergence of competitors such as China and Central Europe and the introduction of the euro for example all have distinct impacts on the economic development of cities. He also suggests that today s economic strengths may create tomorrow s social pathologies, a fact which city planners must always keep in mind. Peter Kresl s book offers examples of cities that got it right and others that did not. Scholars and researchers interested in public sector economics, urban economic development and planning as well as city planners themselves will find much to interest and stimulate them in this book.