Urban Economics,   ISBN:9780072487848

Customer Rating: 

It's not the perfect textbook for the subject, but it is good enough that I still use it in my class. I gave five stars to the 5th edition. The new edition has less material and it is organized in a more integrated way, which for some could be better, but I prefer to teach in a more focused way (with each chapter focusing on one issue). Thus, because there is less material and the new organization, I would give 4 stars to the 6th/7th edition. The book is still very comprehensive, although there are topics that could be better explored (either simplified or extended) and in some cases more accurately according to the current standard urban economics. It has a very good survey of empirical evidence (the best feature of the book), but lack details on evidence and limitations of the studies. Finally, the examples in the text and in the end-of-chapters are poor (not realistic, not creative, and not well related to the material in the book). There are no questions to test knowledge, just understanding (but those questions are not very clear or smart).

Customer Rating: 

STILL IN PACKAGE, book was in great shape, brand new, prompt delivery.

Customer Rating: 

I had "Urban Economics" for one of my urban planning courses at graduate school. It was a pleasure to study the principles and processes of city building, growth and dynamics, through this book. Every chapter in the book can be a title for a separate volume. So this is a very comprehensive overall general view of economics as a determinant of urban development and form.

I particularly liked the chapters on Urban Poverty and Housing. The chapter on poverty explains issues like income transfers, food stamps and their effect on consumer behavior, problems of inner cities and development policies needed to change that.

Housing has a great chapter devoted to the peculiarities of housing as a commodity and the effect of race and discrimination on housing patterns. The most interesting part concerns the "filtering" of housing from the upper income to lower income populations.

Also explained is the auto oriented transportation vs mass transit and their specific roles in shaping cities.

Highly recommended. Easy to read and understand.