Macoreconomics

This course aims to provide the student an overview and some basic concepts on the urban and regional economy and its basic analytic tools. To achieve this objective, the student must acquire certain knowledge, skills and attitudes. The course runs through a set of formal lectures and practical classes. We will study the economics of cities and urban problems by understanding the effects of geographic location on the decisions of individuals and firms. First we will try to answer general and interesting questions such as, Why do cities exist? How do firms decide where to locate? Why do people live in cities? What determines the growth and size of a city? Which policies can modify the shape of a city? Having discussed why we live in cities, we will analyze the economic problems that arise because we are living in cities. We will focus on many specific urban economic problems such as firm location, transportation, housing, education and local government economics.

Course program Ch 1 Introduction to Urb.&Reg. Econ Part I: Market Forces in the Development of Cities Ch 2 Why Do Cities Exist? Ch 3 Clusters Ch 4 City Size & Urban Growth Part II: Land Rent and Land-Use Patterns Ch 5 Urban Land Rent Ch 6 Land-Use Patterns and Urban Planning Part V: Housing Ch 7 Zoning Ch 8 The Housing Market Ch 9 Subprime Mortgage Crisis Part V: Regional Economy Ch 10 The EU Regional Policy. Regional Labor Markets

The teaching methodology will include: - Lectures, which will present the knowledge that students should acquire. To facilitate their development, slide files on the class notes are posted on the course webpage. If you complete those slides taking notes from what is said in class, you should be fine for the tests. All class notes will be matched to chapters of the textbooks listed at the end. - Homework exercises on each chapter will be reviewed in class, grading the students on their answers (25% of the final grade). Throughout the term, the instructor will provided exercises on each chapter. The exercises will be collected. The material covered in or based on the suggested exercises will likely appear on examinations. Students who do well through the exercises always outperform students who do not. - Discussion of real cases drawn from the recent economic news that the professor provide at the beginning of each topic.