The Compact City in Empirical Research: A Quantitative Literature Review

Gabriel M. Ahfeldt and Elisabetta Pietrostefani

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: The 'compact city' is one of the most prominent concepts to have emerged in the global urban policy debate, though it is difficult to ascertain to what extent its theorised positive outcomes can be substantiated by evidence. Our review of the theoretical literature identifies three main compact city characteristics that have effects on 15 categories of outcomes: economic density, morphological density and mixed land use. The scope of our quantitative evidence-review comprises all theoretically relevant combinations of characteristics and outcomes. We review 321 empirical analyses in 189 studies for which we encode the qualitative result along with a range of study characteristics. In line with theoretical expectations, 69% of the included analyses find normatively positive effects associated with compact urban form, although the mean finding is negative for almost half of the combinations of outcomes and characteristics.

Keywords: compact; city; density; meta-analysis; sustainability; urban (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R38 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0215

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