IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/luk/wpaper/8954.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Spontaneous Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Gordon

Abstract

Spontaneous orders are all around us. These have been defined as resulting from human action rather than human design. Prominent examples include language, th e common law, the scientific process, the various applications of the internet, and the market economy – all of them important contributors to our wealth and welfare. Yet we are also sur rounded by objects that are product s of human design. The list is to o long and too obvious to enumerate. In this essay, I will claim that cities are spontaneous orders. The theory has been well developed by Webster and Lai (2003) while the intuitions had been articulated by Jacobs in 1961 . I will discuss two challenges to this view: (1) considerable and numerous human design elements make up the city; and (2) there are schools of thought that maintain that cities are or should be all about human design. So in thinking about cities, what is the logical division of labor between spontaneous order and human design? Given the dispersed nature of specialized knowledge and discarding the unrealistic idea of idealized and all - knowing master planners, learning via trial - and - error experimentation and discovery is essential. Th is is most likely to occur at any scale for which private ownership is possible.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Gordon, 2012. "Spontaneous Cities," Working Paper 8954, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
    • Handle: RePEc:luk:wpaper:8954
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://lusk.usc.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/SPONT.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meir Kohn, 2004. "Value and Exchange," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 24(3), pages 303-339, Fall.
    2. Zabel, Jeffrey & Dalton, Maurice, 2011. "The impact of minimum lot size regulations on house prices in Eastern Massachusetts," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 571-583.
    3. de Haan, Jakob & Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 2000. "On the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 215-241, June.
    4. Lomborg,Bjørn, 2001. "The Skeptical Environmentalist," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521010689, January.
    5. Michael Storper & Anthony J. Venables, 2004. "Buzz: face-to-face contact and the urban economy," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 351-370, August.
    6. William Easterly, 2008. "Institutions: Top Down or Bottom Up?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 95-99, May.
    7. Clifford Winston, 2000. "Government Failure in Urban Transportation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 403-425, December.
    8. Elinor Ostrom, 2010. "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 641-672, June.
    9. Randall G. Holcombe, 2004. "The New Urbanism Versus the Market Process," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 17(2_3), pages 285-300, June.
    10. William J. Baumol, 2013. "The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship," Journal of Economic Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 14(3), pages 96-108.
    11. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    12. Peter J. Boettke (ed.), 2010. "Handbook on Contemporary Austrian Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12822.
    13. Sanford Ikeda, 2004. "Urban Interventionism and Local Knowledge," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 17(2_3), pages 247-264, June.
    14. Chris Webster & Lawrence W.-C. Lai, 2003. "Property Rights, Planning and Markets," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2625.
    15. Demsetz, Harold, 1969. "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, April.
    16. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    17. Rauch James E., 1993. "Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 380-400, November.
    18. Pierre Filion & Kathleen McSpurren, 2007. "Smart Growth and Development Reality: The Difficult Co-ordination of Land Use and Transport Objectives," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(3), pages 501-523, March.
    19. Jenny Schuetz, 2009. "No renters in my suburban backyard: Land use regulation and rental housing," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 296-320.
    20. Joyce Dargay & Dermot Gately & Martin Sommer, 2007. "Vehicle Ownership and Income Growth, Worldwide: 1960-2030," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 143-170.
    21. Edward Ludwig Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, 2003. "The impact of building restrictions on housing affordability," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jun, pages 21-39.
    22. Fred E. Foldvary, 1994. "Public Goods And Private Communities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 167.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Gordon & Wendell Cox, 2014. "Modern cities: their role and their private planning roots," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), Cities and Private Planning, chapter 8, pages 155-173, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Rosina Moreno & Ernest Miguélez, 2012. "A Relational Approach To The Geography Of Innovation: A Typology Of Regions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 492-516, July.
    3. Elsie Echeverri‐Carroll & Sofia G. Ayala, 2009. "Wage differentials and the spatial concentration of high‐technology industries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 623-641, August.
    4. Stefano Moroni, 2011. "Land-use Regulation for the Creative City," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Åke E. Andersson & Charlotta Mellander (ed.), Handbook of Creative Cities, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Li, Yunhe & Tina Zhang, Xiaotian, 2023. "Rent-seeking in bank credit and firm R&D innovation: The role of industrial agglomeration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Palmberg, Johanna, 2012. "Spatial Concentration in the Financial Industry," Ratio Working Papers 188, The Ratio Institute.
    7. Darcy W E Allen, 2020. "When Entrepreneurs Meet:The Collective Governance of New Ideas," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number q0269, October.
    8. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, January.
    9. Daniel Felsenstein, 2015. "Factors Affecting Regional Productivity and Innovation in Israel: Some Empirical Evidence," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(9), pages 1457-1468, September.
    10. Molloy, Raven & Nathanson, Charles G. & Paciorek, Andrew, 2022. "Housing supply and affordability: Evidence from rents, housing consumption and household location," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    11. Glenn Furton & Adam Martin, 2019. "Beyond market failure and government failure," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 197-216, January.
    12. Ammar Malik & Andrew Crooks & Hilton Root & Melanie Swartz, 2015. "Exploring Creativity and Urban Development with Agent-Based Modeling," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(2), pages 1-12.
    13. Krenz, Astrid, 2014. "Agglomeration of knowledge: A regional economic analysis for the German economy," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 206, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    14. Gramzow, Andreas, 2009. "Rural development as provision of local public goods: Theory and evidence from Poland," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 51, number 92313.
    15. Tan Ngoc Vu & Duc Hong Vo & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Rent seeking for export licenses: Application to the Vietnam rice market," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2019-13, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    16. Jieming Zhu, 2005. "A Transitional Institution for the Emerging Land Market in Urban China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1369-1390, July.
    17. Degl’Innocenti, Marta & Matousek, Roman & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank efficiency and financial centres: Does geographical location matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 188-198.
    18. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    19. repec:rri:wpaper:200711 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Antonio Carlos Campos & Luís Lopes & Carlos Carreira, 2024. "Spatial Autocorrelation of Exports and R&D Expenditures in Portugal," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8632-8653, June.
    21. Tappeiner, Gottfried & Hauser, Christoph & Walde, Janette, 2008. "Regional knowledge spillovers: Fact or artifact?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 861-874, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    planning; economic growth;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:luk:wpaper:8954. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Steins (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lcuscus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.