AØKK08355U Seminar: Urban Economics

Volume 2018/2019
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics

Content

The purpose of this seminar is to give students an insight into the urban economics. Emphasis will be on presenting and discussing the basis urban economic analysis and its use in policy evaluation. The main themes which will be covered in the seminar are: agglomeration economies, analysis of urban spatial structure (commuting, housing production and population density), urban sprawl and land-use controls, hedonic price analysis, residential location choice and tenure choice, housing policies, urban distress (urban poverty and segregation), urban externalities (congestion, crime and pollution), cities and transport systems, and spatial labor markets (monopsony). These topics cover many of the important urban economic issues that have emerged in the academic literature over the past three decades. The focus will be on selected topics dealing with contemporary issues of urban policy such as pricing and regulation.

 

  • Agglomeration economies: why do cities exist? This is the fundamental question of urban economics. The answer to this question depends, at least partly, on the agglomeration economies and the scale economies. The agglomeration economies make larger urban areas (cities) more productive than small ones and the scale economies are known as “increasing returns to scale”. Urban economists have had a major effect on policy, and the trend toward city (de)regulation and many of the urban policies (e.g. land-use controls, rent controls and housing subsidy programs) and the abolitions of the place based policies are due to lessons from urban economics.
  • Spatial equilibrium in the Alonso-Muth-Mills model: The basic urban economic model is a monocentric city model. Essential assumptions in this model are that employment is constrained in one location, monetary commuting costs depend on distance, and workers may freely choose the optimal residence location. Furthermore, it is assumed that house prices are endogenous and workers are homogeneous in all aspects except for income. The seminar provides a mainstream treatment of urban spatial structure including demand for housing and commuting in a standard monocentric city model.
  • The static model and the Rosen-Roback framework: In the standard monocentric city model, the role of residential amenities is ignored, but these are clearly important. In the Rosen-Roback framework, the residential location choice, job location and commuting distance depends explicitly on the spatial distribution of residential urban amenities. The seminar offers a detailed analysis of the possible implication of spatial distribution of urban amenities. For example, suppose that all jobs and amenities are in city centres. This is likely a reasonable description for Denmark, where residential amenities and employment tend to be in, or close to, historic city centres. In this case, an increase in household income would induce households to move residence closer to city centres. Another example can be the analysis of urban externalities (e.g. congestion, crime and pollution).
  • Hedonic price analysis and the residential location choice: Property value hedonics is the workhorse model for valuation of local public goods and urban amenities. The hedonic price function describes a price equilibrium on a market for a heterogeneous commodity, without describing the underlying forces of demand and supply. Models of residential location choice (equilibrium sorting models) provide a structural description of the market which opens up the possibility for doping counterfactual (policy) analysis. The recent literature has demonstrated that household location choices are not only affected by the accessibility to employment opportunities but also by accessibility to urban amenities. The seminar provides an introduction to current practice in using hedonic price analysis and residential sorting models. The residential sorting models are useful for analyses of urban distress (e.g. urban poverty and segregation).
  • Transportation and land use in urban areas: The role that transportation plays in the spatial development of urban areas is of great interest. The focus here is on the question of where consumption or production occurs, instead of the question of how much to consume and produce. In order to answer this question, a monocentric theory of residential an employment location can be applied.

 

Ideas for papers:

  • Why cities exist?
  • Urban amenities and the housing prices.
  • Why is housing different?
  • Segregation – consequences or sources of education and crime?
  • The sources of agglomeration economies.
  • Wages, labour supply and commuting.
  • Why do firms cluster?
  • Congestion pricing and the urban structure.
Learning Outcome

After completing the seminar the student must have achieved the learning outcome specified in the Curriculum.

Brueckner, J. K. 2011. Lectures on urban economics. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.

Glaeser, E. L. 2008. Cities, Agglomeration and Spatial Equilibrium. Oxford University Press.

O’Sullivan, A. 2012. Urban Economics, (eight edition). McGraw-Hill, Boston, USA..

The students should have an understanding of basics of microeconomics at the level of Hal R. Varian’s "Intermediate Microeconomics” or similar, and knowledge of econometrics at the level of Jeffrey Wooldridge’s “Introductory Econometrics” or similar.
Kick-off meeting, research and writing process of the seminar project paper, presentation of own project, constructive feedback to another student´s project and actively participating in discussions at class.

The aim of the presentations is, that the student, who presents, uses the presentation as an opportunity to practice oral presentations skills and to receive feedback improving the seminar project.

Process:
It is strongly recommended that you start your search for a topic before the semester begins, as there is only a limited amount of weeks from the kick-off meeting to the first submission.

Before the presentations, your largely finished version of the seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon, as the opponents and the other seminar participants have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you upload a nearly finished project due to the fact that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is strongly associated with the skill of the seminar project paper.

After the presentations, you can make a light correction of the seminar project to include the feedback and comments emerged during the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the writing of the full project AFTER the presentation has taken place.

The seminar project paper must be uploaded in the Digital Exam portal for assessment with in the deadline announced under Exam.
Schedule: (suggestions)
• Kick-off meeting: February 6, 2019 15:15-17:00
• Extra days of teaching/supervision: weeks 7, 8, 14 and 16
• Deadline of commitment paper (uploaded in Absalon): March 1
• Deadline of pre-paper uploaded to Absalon: 8 days before presentation.
• Presentations/Workshops: weeks 18, 19 and 20 (exact days will be decided at the kick-off meeting)

All information from the lecturer regarding the seminar is communicated through Absalon including venue.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
- a seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements for written papers stated in the curriculum of the Master programme and at KUNet for seminars.
Exam registration requirements

Attendance in all  activities at the seminar as stated in the formal requrements in the Curriculum  and at the KUNet for Seminars (UK)  and Seminars (DK) is required to participate in the exam.

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Aid
All aids allowed

for the project paper.

The supervisor defines the aids that must be used for the presentations.

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Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
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Exam period

Exam information:

Deadline for uploading the final seminar paper: June 3, 2019 before 10 AM

 

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules, exam schedule etc. is available at the intranet for Master (UK) and Master (DK ).

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Re-exam

Reexam information:

The reexam is a written seminar paper as stated in the Curriculum.

Deadline and more information is available at Seminars (UK) and Seminars (DK).

More information about reexam etc is available at Master (UK)andMaster (DK).

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material.