Economía

2220 million Americans crowd together in the four percent of the country that is urban. 35 million people live in the vast metropolitan area of Tokyo, the most productive urban area in the world. Greater Mumbai has 16 million people, and Shanghai has 13 million. We choose to live cheek by jowl, in a planet with vast amounts of space. Yet despite all of the land available to us, we choose to live in proximity to cities. Using economist to understand this phenomenon, the urban economits uses the told of economic theory and empirical data to explain why cities exist and to analyze urban issues such as housing, education, crime, poverty and social interaction. Drawing on the success of this Lindahl lectures, Edward Glaeser provides a rigorous ac count of this research and unique thinking on cities. Using a series of simple models and economic including the concepts of spatial equilibrium and agglomeration economies. Written for a mathematically inclined audience with an interest in urban economics and cities, the book is written to be accessible to theorists and non-theorists alike and should provides a basis for further empirical work.