Urban Inequality, Neoliberalism, and the Case for a Multidisciplinary Economics

This paper begins by chronicling the stunning inequality (economic and other) that characterizes the U.S. economy and U.S. cities. The development of cities in the United States in recent decades is linked quite essentially to the dynamics and contradictions of U.S. capitalism, including a policy agenda that has been pro-capital and anti-urban. The penultimate section of the paper shows that neoclassical theory – with its focus on “choice†– provides a deeply inadequate explanation of urban inequality. And yet neoclassicism, along with its cruder relative, neoliberalism, has continued to shape the narrative of U.S. cities. The final section argues for a “multidisciplinary economics†that recognizes that a rich urban economics requires insights from political science, sociology, geography, and other academic disciplines.