This course is intended primarily for students on MSc Real Estate Economics and Finance. It is optional on MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public and Social Policy. The course assumes that students already have knowledge of economics equivalent to a good first degree in the subject. It is available as an option to students who can show that they are suitably qualified.
This course aims to provide students with a theoretical and empirical understanding of urban economic processes and price determination in land and real property markets within an institutional context. Examples of topics covered include: the function of cities and the urban system; the determinants of urban structure; patterns of urban land use; the determinants of urban and regional growth - theory and evidence; land and real property markets; the impact of land market regulation including the economic impact of land use planning; local public finance and house price capitalisation; real estate cycles; homeownership; the economics of schooling, crime and urban transport; urban labour markets. The institutional frame of reference within which the course is taught relates mainly to Western Europe and the United States.
Detailed reading list will be given out at the beginning of the course. Much of the reading will be journal articles. However, some important items are: J. F. McDonald & D. P. McMillen, Urban Economics and Real Estate, 2007. D. DiPasquale & W. Wheaton, Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets, 1996; A. O'Sullivan, (7th edn), 2009; B. O'Flaherty, City Economics, 2005; J. F. McDonald, Fundamentals of Urban Economics, 1997; P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills, Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Vol III: Applied Urban Economics, North Holland, 1999; M. Fujita, Urban Economic Theory, 1988; Henderson, J. V. and J. F. Thisse, Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Vol IV, North Holland, 2004; E. L. Glaeser, Triumph of the City, 2011.
