Over the past thirty years, urban economic theory has been one of the most active areas of urban and regional economic research. Just as static general equilibrium theory is at the core of modern microeconomics, so is the topic of this book - the static allocation of resources within a city and between cities - at the core of urban economic theory. An Essay on Urban Economic Theory well reflects the state of the field. Part I provides an elegant, coherent, and rigorous presentation of several variants of the monocentric (city) model - as the centerpiece of urban economic theory - treating equilibrium, optimum, and comparative statistics. Part II explores less familiar and even some uncharted territory. The monocentric model looks at a single city in isolation, taking as given a central business district surrounded by residences. Part II, in contrast, makes the intra-urban location of residential and non-residential activity the outcome of the fundamental tradeoff between the propensity to interact and the aversion to crowding; the resulting pattern of agglomeration may be polycentric. Part II also develops models of an urbanized economy with trade between specialized cities and examines how the market-determined size distribution of cities differs from the optimum. This book launches a new series, Advances in Urban and Regional Economics. The series aims to provide an outlet for longer scholarly works dealing with topics in urban and regional economics.

This integrated collection of essays exploring the economic theory of cities assembles work by a number of the world's leading exponents.

This book provides the first unifying treatment of the range of economic reasons for the clustering of firms and households. Its goal is to explain further the trade-off between various forms of increasing returns and different types of mobility costs. Although referring to agglomeration as a generic term is convenient, it should be noted that the concept of economic agglomeration refers to distinct real world situations. The main focus of the treatment is on cities, but it also explores the formation of agglomerations, such as commercial districts within cities, industrial clusters at the regional level, and the existence of imbalance between regions. The book is rooted within the realm of modern economics and borrows concepts from geography and regional science, which makes it accessible to a broad audience formed by economists, geographers, regional planners, and other scientists. It may be used in coursework for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates.

Designed to reach a wide audience of scholars and policymakers, this new series contains studies on urban sprawl, crime, taxes, education, poverty, and related subjects. "This journal will set the tone for urban economics for the coming decades. It will play a major role not only in academia, but also in ensuring that we have better urban economic policy." —George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley Contents of the third issue include: "Local Government Fiscal Structure and Metropolitan Consolidation" Dennis Epple (Carnegie-Mellon University), Stephen Calabrese (University of South Florida), and Glenn Cassidy Should the Suburbs Help Finance Central City Public Services? Andrew Haughwout (Federal Reserve Bank of NY) and Robert Inman (University of Pennsylvania) "Tax Incentives and the City" Therese McGuire (UCLA) and Teresa Garcia-Mila (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) "Does Gentrification Harm the Poor?" Jacob Vigdor (Duke University) "Corruption in Cities: Graft and Politics in American Cities at the Turn of the Twentieth Century" Rebecca Menes (George Mason University) "Immigrant Children and Urban Schools: Lessons from New York on Segregation, Resources and School Attendance Patterns" Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O'Regan, Amy Ellen Schwartz, and Leanna Stiefel (New York University) William G. Gale is the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Janet Roterber Pack is professor public policy and management and real estate at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.