Homework 1; Solutions to Hw1
Syllabus (lectures 14-16 are tentative); Student Presentations: Guidelines and Paper List;
Midterm Proposal Outline: Guidelines
Download RStudio; Download R programming language
- Lecture 1 (2/26): 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 (3/4): 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 (3/11): Monocentric City Model and Transportation Modes (lecture notes)
- Required: Jerch, Rhiannon, Barwick, Panle Jia, Li, Shanjun, and Wu, Jing. “Road Rationing Policies and Housing Markets,” Journal of Urban Economics, 2024
- Optional: LeRoy, Stephen F. and Sonstelie, Jon, “Paradise Lost and Regained: Transportation Innovation, Income, and Residential Location”, Journal of Urban Economics, 1983
- Lecture 4 (3/18): 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 (3/25): Equilibrium across Cities (lecture notes; Moretti model simulation: html, Rmd)
- Required: Roback, Jennifer. “Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life,” Journal of Political Economy, 1982
- Recommended: 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 (4/1): Place-based Policies (lecture notes, plotting notes for mathstud.io)
- 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 7 (4/8): Sorting within Cities (lecture notes); Logit exercise: handout, DO file; simple sorting model DO file
- 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 8 (4/15): 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
- Recommended: Bayer, Patrick, Ross, Stephen L., and Topa, Giorgio, “Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes,” Journal of Political Economy, 2008
- Lecture 9 (4/22): Micro-Foundations 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
- 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
- Required: Duranton, Gilles and Puga, Diego, “The Micro-Foundations of Urban Agglomeration Economies,” Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Vol 4, 2004
- Lecture 10 (4/29): 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
- Optional: Dai, Tianran and Schiff, Nathan, “The Structure and Growth of Ethnic Neighborhoods“, Journal of Urban Economics, 2023
- Note: this paper studies concentrations of ethnic populations, not firms, but is closely related in methodology to firm concentration studies
- Lecture 11 (5/6): Spatial Methods
- Lecture 12 (5/13): 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)
- Optional: Krugman, Paul, “Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade,” American Economic Review, 1980
- Optional: Krugman, Paul, “Increasing Returns and Economic Geography,” Journal of Political Economy, 1991
- Lecture 13 (5/20): 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.
- Required: Faber, Ben. “Trade Integration, Market Size, and Industrialization: Evidence from China’s National Trunk Highway System,” Review of Economic Studies, 2014.
- Lectures 14 (5/27): Introduction to Housing Economics (lecture notes)
- Lecture 15: Class presentations