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Urbanization and Its Discontents

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  • Edward L. Glaeser

    (Harvard University and NBER)

Abstract

American cities have experienced a remarkable renaissance over the past 40 years, but in recent years, cities have experienced considerable discontent. Anger about high housing prices and gentrification has led to protests. The urban wage premium appears to have disappeared for less skilled workers. The cities of the developing world are growing particularly rapidly, but in those places, the downsides of density are acute. In this essay, I review the causes of urban discontent and present a unified explanation for this unhappiness. Urban resurgence represents private sector success, and the public sector typically only catches up to urban change with a considerable lag. Moreover, as urban machines have been replaced by governments that are more accountable to empowered residents, urban governments do more to protect insiders and less to enable growth. The power of insiders can be seen in the regulatory limits on new construction and new businesses, the slow pace of school reform and the unwillingness to embrace congestion pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward L. Glaeser, 2020. "Urbanization and Its Discontents," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 191-218, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:easeco:v:46:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1057_s41302-020-00167-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41302-020-00167-3
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    2. Cristina Bernini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2022. "The Mediating Role of Urbanization on the Composition of Happiness," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(3), pages 639-657, June.
    3. Fredrik Carlsen & Stefan Leknes, 2022. "For whom are cities good places to live?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(12), pages 2177-2190, December.
    4. Gyourko, Joseph & Hartley, Jonathan S. & Krimmel, Jacob, 2021. "The local residential land use regulatory environment across U.S. housing markets: Evidence from a new Wharton index," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Edward L. Glaeser, 2021. "Urban Resilience," NBER Working Papers 29261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Seung Jin Cho & Jun Yeong Lee & John V. Winters, 2021. "Employment impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic across metropolitan status and size," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 1958-1996, December.
    7. Nancy Lozano-Gracia, 2020. "COVID and cities – A new demon that points at old problems: How can research help?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(7), pages 1128-1132, September.
    8. Edward L Glaeser, 2022. "Urban resilience," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(1), pages 3-35, January.
    9. Juan Carlos Lopez, 2022. "Will Increasing Housing Supply Reduce Urban Inequality?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(4), pages 383-416, July.
    10. Yating Ru & Beliyou Haile & John I. Carruthers, 2022. "Urbanization and child growth failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: a geographical analysis," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 441-473, July.
    11. Fen Zhang & Tianyi Song & Xiang Cheng & Tianhao Li & Ziming Yang, 2022. "Transportation Infrastructure, Population Mobility, and Public Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Yu Wang & Bindong Sun & Sixu Wu & Wan Li & Tinglin Zhang, 2021. "Can the internet reshape the national city size distribution? Cross‐country evidence," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1254-1272, October.

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