Description

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This volume embodies a problem-driven and theoretically informed approach to bridging frontier research in urban economics and urban/regional planning. The authors focus on the interface between these two subdisciplines that have historically had an uneasy relationship.

Although economists were among the early contributors to the literature on urban planning, many economists have been dismissive of a discipline whose leading scholars frequently favor regulations over market institutions, equity over efficiency, and normative prescriptions over positive analysis. Planners, meanwhile, even as they draw upon economic principles, often view the work of economists as abstract, not sensitive to institutional contexts, and communicated in a formal language spoken by few with decision making authority. Not surprisingly, papers in the leading economic journals rarely cite clearly pertinent papers in planning journals, and vice versa.

Despite the historical divergence in perspectives and methods, urban economics and urban planning share an intense interest in many topic areas: the nature of cities, the prosperity of urban economies, the provision of urban services, efficient systems of transportation, and the proper allocation of land between urban and environmental uses. In bridging this gap, this book highlights the best scholarship in planning and economics that addresses the most pressing urban problems of our day and will stimulate further dialog between scholars in urban planning and urban economics.

About the Author

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Nancy Brooks is Visiting Associate Professor at Cornell University in the Department of City and Regional Planning, and has also been on the economics department faculty at the University of Vermont. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. Her research interests are in applied urban and environmental economics. She has published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Kieran Donaghy is Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. in regional science from Cornell University. He has studied issues in transportation, land use, housing, labor markets, and the environment. Much of his recent research concerns the impacts of globalization and climate change on regions and how resource-rich regions can avoid the "resource curse." Gerrit-Jan Knaap is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland. Knaap's research interests include the economics and politics of land use planning, the efficacy of economic development instruments, and the impacts of environmental policy. He serves on the State of Maryland's Smart Growth Subcabinet and Sustainable Growth Commission and the Science and Technical Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Bay Commission. Knaap earned his B.S. from Willamette University, his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, and received post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in economics.