Graduate Urban Economics, Spring 2022

Syllabus; Hw1

• Lecture 1 (2/23): Introduction, Urbanization in China (lecture notes)
  • Required: Chauvin, Juan Pablo, Glaeser, Edward, Ma, Yueran, and Tobio, Kristina, “What is Different about Urbanization in Rich and Poor Countries? Cities in Brazil, China, India, and the United States.” Journal of Urban Economics, 2016
  • Optional: Dingel, Jonathan I., Miscio, Antonio, Davis, Donald R., “Cities, Lights, and Skills in Developing Economies,” Journal of Urban Economics, 2020
  • Optional: J. Vernon Henderson, “Urbanization in China: Policy Issues and Options,” Recommendation to China Economic Research and Advisory Program, 2009
  • Gibrat’s Law to Zipf simulation video
• Lecture 2 (3/10): Monocentric City Model (lecture notes)
  • Required: Brueckner, Jan K., “The Structure of Urban Equilibria: A Unified Treatment of the Muth-Mills Model”, Ch. 20, Handbook of Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol 2, 1987
  • Optional: Duranton, Gilles and Puga, Diego, “Urban Land Use”, Handbook of Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol 5, 2015.
    • The first two sections (up to p14) cover the basic model from our class.
  • Optional: Fujita, Masahisa, “Urban Economic Theory: Land Use and City Size,” Cambridge University Press, 1989.
    • Chapters 2 and 3
  • R Notebook with simple simulation, code (.Rmd file)
• Lecture 3 (3/16): Monocentric City Model and Transportation Modes (lecture notes)
  1. Required: Jerch, Rhiannon, Barwick, Panle Jia, Li, Shanjun, and Wu, Jing. “Road Rationing Policies and Housing Markets,” Working Paper, 2021
  2. Optional: LeRoy, Stephen F. and Sonstelie, Jon, “Paradise Lost and Regained: Transportation Innovation, Income, and Residential Location”, Journal of Urban Economics, 1983
• Lecture 4 (3/23): Transportation and Decentralization in China (lecture notes)
  • Required: Baum-Snow, Brandt, Henderson, Turner, Zhang. “Roads, Railroads and Decentralization of Chinese Cities,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2017
• Lecture 5 (3/30): Equilibrium across Cities (lecture notes)
  • Required: Roback, Jennifer. “Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life,” Journal of Political Economy, 1982
  • Optional: Moretti, Enrico, “Local Labor Markets,” Chapter 14, Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 4b, 2010.
  • Optional: Glaeser, Edward, and Gottlieb, Joshua, “The Wealth of Cities: Agglomeration Economies and Spatial Equilibrium in the United States,” Journal of Economic Literature, 2009
• Lecture 6 (4/6): Sorting within Cities (lecture notes)
  • Required: Bayer, Patrick, Ferreira, Fernando, and McMillan, Robert, “A Unified Framework for Measuring Preference for Schools and Neighborhoods,” Journal of Political Economy, 2007
  • Optional: Bayer, Patrick, McMillan, Robert, and Rueben, Kim “An Equilibrium Model of Sorting in an Urban Housing Market,” NBER WP 10865
• Lecture 7 (4/20): Microfoundations of Agglomeration (lecture notes)
  • Required: Duranton, Gilles and Puga, Diego, “The Micro-Foundations of Urban Agglomeration Economies,” Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Vol 4, 2004
    1. Note: This is a long paper and so I only want you to understand the basic models of sharing, matching, and learning. Therefore you can skip sections: 2.3.2, 2.4, 3.1.5, 3.3, 4.2.2, 4.3. The above link is to the final working paper, which is a clearer digital copy than the handbook article
  • Optional: Au, Chun-Chung and Henderson, J. Vernon, “Are Chinese Cities Too Small?”, Review of Economic Studies, 2006
  • Optional: Au, Chun-Chung and Henderson, J. Vernon, “How migration restrictions limit agglomeration and productivity in China”, Journal of Development Economics, 2006
• Lecture 8 (4/27): Agglomeration and Firm Concentration (lecture notes)
  • Required: Ellison, Glenn and Glaeser, Edward, “Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach,” Journal of Political Economy, 1997
  • Optional: Guimaraes, Paulo, Figueiredo, Octavio, and Woodward, Douglas, “Measuring the Localization of Economic Activity: A Parametric Approach,” Journal of Regional Science, 2007
• Lecture 9 (5/7): Spatial Methods
  • Class exercise in QGIS
  • Data for class exercise
• Lecture 10 (5/11): Neighborhoods and Neighborhood Effects (lecture notes)
  • Required: Topa, Giorgio and Zenou, Yves, “Neighborhood and Network Effects,” Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, 2015
  • Recommended: Chetty, Raj and Hendren, Nathaniel, “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2018
  • Optional: Dai, Tianran and Schiff, Nathan, “The Structure and Growth of Ethnic Neighborhoods,” WP 2021
• Lecture 11 (5/18): The New Economic Geography (lecture notes)
  • Required: Neary, J. Peter, “Of Hype and Hyperbolas: Introducing the New Economic Geography“, Journal of Economic Literature, 2001
  • R-Notebook to simulate Krugman AER 1980 (html, Rmd)
• Lectures 12 (5/25): New Economic Geography Models and an Application to China (lecture notes)
  • Required: Faber, Ben. “Trade Integration, Market Size, and Industrialization: Evidence from China’s National Trunk Highway System,” Review of Economic Studies, 2014.
    • Appendix to Faber 2014
  • Optional: Baum-Snow, Nathaniel, Henderson, J. Vernon, Turner, Matthew, Zhang, Qinghua, and Brandt, Loren, “Does Investment in National Highways Help or Hurt Hinterland City Growth?” Journal of Urban Economics, 2020.
• Lecture 13 (6/1): Intro Housing Economics and Chinese Housing Market (lecture notes)
  • Required: Glaeser, Edward, Huang, Wei, Ma, Yueran, and Shleifer, Andrei, “A Real Estate Boom with Chinese Characteristics,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017.
• Lecture 14 (6/8): Place-based Policies (lecture notes)
  • Required: Kline, Patrick, and Moretti, Enrico, “People, Places, and Public Policy: Some Simple Welfare Economics of Local Economic Development Programs,” Annual Review of Economics, 2014
  • Optional: Neumark, David and Simpson, Helen, “Place-Based Policies,” Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, 2015
• Lecture 15 (6/15): Student presentations; Course Conclusion