The New Science of Cities by Michael Batty: The Opinion of an Economist
- (pp. 805-19)
Abstract
Cities are the cradle of a wide range of cultural, social, and technological innovations that are at the heart of modern economic growth and development. Half of humanity today lives in cities but, until the last two decades, economists have paid much less attention to cities than have other social scientists. By contrast, geographers have long studied the role of cities in human affairs. Michael Batty, a distinguished scholar in the field of human geography, has recently written The New Science of Cities, a synthesis of his work and of some other prominent urban geographers. A review of his book is the first objective of this essay. The second is to discuss and compare the tools and concepts developed by urban economists with those of urban geographers in the hope of triggering a fruitful debate between those two groups of social scientists.Citation
Thisse, Jacques-Francois. 2014. "The New Science of Cities by Michael Batty: The Opinion of an Economist." Journal of Economic Literature, 52 (3): 805-19. DOI: 10.1257/jel.52.3.805Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- R10 General Regional Economics (includes Regional Data)
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
- R30 Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location: General
- R40 Transportation Economics: General
- R58 Regional Development Planning and Policy