Economics for everybody : Why and how cities grow? By Laurent Gobillon

Over the past two centuries, a massive urbanization movement has developed in specific geographic areas before spreading to the entire globe. This urbanization is a major challenge for public authorities as it increases inequalities, particularly in terms of housing, transportation and access to culture.

Published on 05/04/2023 03:18

Urban economics studies the attraction of cities to businesses and people, and the pitfalls that can limit their development.

Read the full contribution by Laurent Gobillon: “Why and how cities grow?”. In this editorial, he focuses on three major issues of city growth: agglomeration economies, urban costs and local amenities, and spatialized public policies.

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Why and how cities grow? Laurent Gobillon

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Laurent Gobillon is professor at the Paris School of Economics and director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). He is also a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and editor-in-chief of the Regional Science and Urban Economics journal.

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Combes P. P. & Gobillon L., 2015, “The empirics of agglomeration economies, in handbook of regional and urban economics”, Elsevier, Vol. 5, pp. 247-348.
Combes P. P., Duranton G. & Gobillon L., 2019, “The costs of agglomeration: house and land prices in French cities”, The Review of Economic Studies, 86(4), pp. 1556-1589.
Duranton G. & Puga D., 2014, “The growth of cities. Handbook of economic growth”, Elsevier, Vol. 2, pp. 781-853.
Duranton G. & Puga D., 2015, “Urban land use, in handbook of regional and urban economics”, Elsevier, Vol. 5, pp. 467-560.
Glaeser E., 2011, Des villes et des hommes : enquête sur un mode de vie planétaire, Flammarion, 364 pp.
Kline P. & Moretti E., 2014, “People, places, and public policy: Some simple welfare economics of local economic development programs”, Annual Review of Economics, 6(1), pp. 629-662.

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