Syllabus (lectures 10-16 are tentative); Student Presentations: Guidelines and Paper List;
Hw1; Solutions; Code for Problem 5 (rmd, html)
Midterm Proposal Outline: Guidelines
Download RStudio; Download R programming language; Download QGIS (choose LTR: Long Term Version)
2024 Beijing SMUE Conference program; Online Spatial Urban Seminars; 2020 Urban Economics lectures
- Lecture 1 (2/25/2025): 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, 2017
- 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 and Jacques-François Thisse,”Urban and Spatial Economics after 50 Years,” Journal of Urban Economics, 2024
- 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.
- Additional: 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