We use applied microeconomics to examine several salient problems of urban transportation: traffic congestion, air pollution, the costs of motor vehicle accidents and the future of public transportation. Throughout this chapter, we focus on analytic methods and findings that bear on current...

This chapter begins with the dimensions of the poverty problem in developing countries, and then deals with conceptual and measurement issues. It next discusses the nature, characteristics and correlates of rural and urban poverty. It looks into the issue of gender and poverty, then turns to the...

This chapter discusses theoretical and applied research in urban economics on decentralized cities, i.e., cities in which employment is not restricted to the central business district. The first section discusses informally the incentives that firms face to suburbanize. The next section...

This chapter reviews the literature on the boundary between urban economics and local public finance, defined as research that considers both a housing market and the market for local public services. The first part of the chapter considers positive theories. This part presents the consensus...