Spontaneous orders are all around us. These have been defined as resulting from human action rather than human design. Prominent examples include language, th e common law, the scientific process, the various applications of the internet, and the market economy – all of them important...

Discussions of economic growth require an examination of the role of cities. It is widely claimed that c ities exi st because they facilitate economic growth and development . Spatial concentrations reduce transactions cost s . There are additional benefits gained as positive spillover effects...

Amid concerns of how U.S. cities "sprawl", it is useful to look at the cities of other developed nations, in particular Western Europe which has attained U.S. - type prosperity, but which is reputed to have cities Americans should look to as a model. We examine recent data which suggest that...

As cities grow, what happens to urban form and how does that changetraffic conditions? How does growing traffic affect urban structure? Thesequestions have received considerable theoretical and empirical attention over thelast 25 years. They relate to the NIMBY debate, which associates most...

While several reports (e.g. Lebergott, 1993; Moore and Simon, 1999; Cox and Alm, 1999) document stunning advances in health, longevity and material well being and while it is no longer disreputable to credit the market economy, most current discussions of cities and land use see only market failures. A...

This paper presents an empirical study of the links between metropolitan spatial structure and economic growth. Consistent with an urban evolution hypothesis, the growth effects of employment dispersion were found to be dependent on metropolitan size. A metropolitan area with a more clustered...

Although the full picture is necessarily complex and many commentators are pointing to signs of re-centralization, population and employment in the 3132 counties of the U.S. continues to decentralize. This is based on an analysis of annual data from the Regional Economic Information System...

This paper examines the Portland experience as America’s most widely regarded example of urban sustainability. It suggests that appearances are deceptive. It compares some characteristics of development in Portland with similar trends in Los Angeles, not known as an exemplar of...

Simple introspection as well as accumulating evidence from academic research suggests that a core idea of urban economists, that journeys-to-work dominate households’ choice of residential location, is suspect (Giuliano and Small, 1993). Indeed, our own recent research identifies...

This is the first time in U.S. history that an urban planning problem has featured, if peripherally, as a Presidential campaign issue. Never before have academic urban planners been in so much demand for T.V. news programs, radio talk shows, and newspaper op-ed pieces. Why? Because of a raging...