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Prof Henry Overman

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Geography with Economics. This course is available on the BA in Geography, BSc in Economic History and Geography, BSc in Economics, BSc in Environment and Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics and BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course is capped at 80 students.

Economics A (EC100) or Economics B (EC102) or Microeconomics I (EC1A1 or EC1A3 or EC1A5) in combination with Macroeconomics I (EC1B1 or EC1B3 or EC1B5), and ST107 (or equivalent course in statistics) strongly recommended.

Urban economics is concerned with the spatial form of cities and the division of national economic activity into cities, both at a point in time and over time.  Three fundamental questions are: (1) Why are economic activities within a country so unequally distributed across space? (2) Why do cities (and agglomerations of firms and workers) emerge and in what locations? (3) How and why are economic activities within cities unequally distributed in general and between the city centre and the suburbs?

The main topics covered in this course include:

- Why do cities exist and why do firms cluster?

- What determines equilibrium city size and features of the urban system?

- City growth and spatial transformation

- Diseconomies in cities: Urban location, land rents and land use patterns

- The role of local governments

In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live online lectures, in-person lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures across Winter Term.

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will be expected to prepare for group discussion of some readings and hand in short essays or problem sets.

• O’Sullivan. A., Urban Economics. Boston: Irwin- McGraw-Hill, 9th Edition, 2019.
• Greenstone M. R. Hornbeck & E. Moretti (2010). Identifying agglomeration economies: Evidence from winners and losers of large plant openings, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 118, No. 3, 536-598.
• Duranton, G. & Puga, D. (2001). Nursery cities: Urban diversity, process innovation, and the life cycle of products. American Economic Review, 91(5).
• Ahlfeldt, G. M., & McMillen, D. P. (2018). Tall buildings and land values: Height and construction cost elasticities in Chicago, 1870–2010. Review of Economics and Statistics, 100(5), 861-875.
• Hilber, C. A., & Vermeulen, W. (2016). The impact of supply constraints on house prices in England. The Economic Journal, 126(591), 358-405.
• Hilber, C.A.L. & Lyytikäinen, T. (2017). Transfer Taxes and Household Mobility: Distortion on the Housing or Labor Market? Journal of Urban Economics 101, 57-73.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.