The Habitat II conference in June 1996 was more determined by retrospect and prospect than by the discussions during the several days in Istanbul. The policy outcomes were fashioned by reforms and research in the mid 1980s leading to the 'new urban agenda', the Global Strategy for Shelter, and...

Theories of urban overdevelopment and 'urban bias' have a long, but discontinuous history, dating from the 1920s when policy-makers in the former Soviet Union considered urban-rural sectoral balance in planned economic development. The idea of urban bias has had continuing relevance in...

Structural economic adjustment has relevance and significance in OECD countries, among the countries in transition from socialism to capitalism, and in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its impacts are multi-institutional being in firms, government agencies,...

Property cycles are varied in terms of their amplitude, their periodicity and the impact they exert on the wider economy. In periods of domestic macroeconomic stability, property cycles tend to be endogenous-i.e. caused by disequilibria in the sector — and they are relatively subdued. In...