Library Guides: Economics: Urban

Sample Reference Books

Urban Economics
This edition of a classic text provides a clear presentation of the economic forces that: (a) cause the development of cities; (b) determine the spatial form of cities; (c) cause urban economies to grow or shrink;(d) generate urban problems such as poverty, crime, and congestion;(e) make the market for urban housing unique; and (f) shape the tax and spending policies of local government.
The Wealth and Poverty of Cities
The preconditions for the creation of wealth - the rule of law, public education, and sound macroeconomic management are the responsibility of the state. By considering national fiscal and monetary policies and state policies governing the organization of cities, this book disentangles two processes: the mechanics of creating wealth and the mechanics of agglomeration or capturing wealth in cities.
Reconstructing Urban Economics
Neoclassical economics, the intellectual bedrock of modern capitalism, faces growing criticisms, as many of its key assumptions and policy prescriptions are systematically challenged. Yet, there remains one field of economics where these limitations continue virtually unchallenged: the study of cities and regions in built-environment economics. In this book, Franklin Obeng-Odoom draws on institutional, Georgist and Marxist economics to clearly but comprehensively show what the key issues are today in thinking about urban economics.
The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning
This volume embodies a problem-driven and theoretically informed approach to bridging research in urban economics and urban/regional planning. The authors focus on the interface between two disciplines that have historically had an uneasy relationship. Urban economics and urban planning share an intense interest in many topic areas: the nature of cities, the prosperity of urban economies, the efficient provision of urban services, efficient systems of transportation, and the properal location of land between urban and environmental uses.

Organizations

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Analyzes federal budget priorities with a focus on how budget choices affect low-income Americans.

Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard and MIT Universities. Provides The State of our Nation’s Housing annual analysis on key housing trends in America, as well as statistics, research , and reports on housing issues.

National Housing Conference. Nonprofit dedicated to helping ensure safe, decent and affordable housing for all in America, specializing in solutions through research to broaden understanding of America’s affordable housing challenges.

NBER Working Group on Urban Economics. Scholars working on the economics of cities. The overarching theme of the Group is the causes and consequences of metropolitan density, but it is interested in all areas of economics that touch on urban life.

Urban Economics Association. Association whose members are economic researchers with a focus on urban topics.

Urban Land Institute. Independent global think tank representing the spectrum of real estate development and land use disciplines.

Selected Journals

These journals are specific to Housing Economics, but researchers in the field also publish in many other economics journals. See this listing of some highly cited ones for more information.

Databases and Search Engines

EconLit. Comprehensive index to scholarly journal articles in economics. It also lists books and dissertations, and articles within 'collective works'.

IDEAS: Economics and Finance Research. Free database of economics lierature with thousands of full-text working papers, books and book chapters, and articles from peer-reviewed journals.

NBER Papers on Working Group on Urban Economics. Papers from the NBER on Urban Economics which brings together scholars working on the economics of cities.

Policy File. Covers the areas of economics, politics, the environment, and social issues, taken from reports from a wide range of think tanks, Non-governmental organizations, international governmental organizations, and other institutions worldwide.

Proquest Social Sciences. An interdisciplinary meta-search through 22 of the the social sciences indexes on the ProQuest platform.

Selected Data Sources

American Community Survey. (IPUMS-USA). Ongoing survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau with questions about age, sex, race, family and relationships, income and benefits, health insurance, education, veteran status, disabilities, employment, travel to work, place of residence, prices for living essentials, and more.

data.census.gov. Population, housing, economic and geographic data from the from the U.S. Census with the aggregate data from a variety of Census Bureau Surveys including the Decennial Census and American Community Survey.

Bank for International Settlement Property Price Statistics. Useful for comparisons across countries.

Case Shiller Index. Provides monthly pricing/resale values back to 1987 for the United States and 20 metropolitan areas. Data is available from Standard & Poor's and requires registration.

CEIC. Includes real estate data for many countries, sometimes sub-nationally. OK to click "guest access," registration offers additional features.

Center for Microeconomic Data.From the New York Federal Reserve. Includes data on buying and selling, delinquencies, household debt, renting and owning, mortgage financing and more.

China Statistical Yearbooks has regional price indices for housing. Additional more detailed statistics can be found in the China real estate statistical yearbook.

Current Population Survey. (Microdata, via IPUMS). Primary source of labor force statistics for the population of the United States and source of numerous economic statistics, including the national unemployment rate at the national, state and sub-state level.

Euromonitor Passport. Time series data on Labor, Transport, Prices, Income, Expenditures, Climate, Pollution, and more for selected cities worldwide. Go to cities under "economies" from the top menu and then either "rank cities" or "search statistics."

Eurostat from the EU has European Housing Price Indices.

Fair Market Rents. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annually estimates fair rents for 530 metropolitan areas and 2,045 non-metropolitan county areas.

Global Financial Data. Includes international real estate data: home price indexes, housing starts, prices, listings, sales, etc. Indexes are at times at very small levels of geography (cities) as well as states, countries and regions.

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. US Government HMDA data with detailed statistics on mortgage lending finance. For other years not covered see Data Planet, ICPSR and older years on CD ROM in the library data lab.

HUD provides data sets on a variety of topics, most notably affordable housing. See the Data Set Reference Guide.

HUD Fair Market Rents
Government Sponsored Enterprise Data -- Multifamily homes
Income Limits
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Database
Picture of Subsidized Households
Out of Reach - wage required to afford modest housing in communities throughout the USA and rental values.

Rentonomics. Rent estimates with representative median rent statistics for recent movers taken from the American Community Survey. Data is then extrapolated forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from their listing data.

Sage Data. Easy access to US and international economic, social, and political indicators.

Social Explorer. Current and historical United States aggregate census data, including all historic censuses and American Community Surveys. Census data is current and historical back to 1790.

Secondary menu

Economics: Urban

Sample Reference Books

Organizations

Selected Journals

Databases and Search Engines

Selected Data Sources