The Economics of Urban Density

Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2020, vol. 34, issue 3, 3-26

Abstract: Density boosts productivity and innovation, improves access to goods and services, reduces typical travel distances, encourages energy efficient construction and transport, and allows broader sharing of scarce urban amenities. However, density is also synonymous with crowding and makes living and moving in cities more costly. We explore the appropriate measurement of density and describe how it is both a cause and a consequence of the evolution of cities. We then discuss whether and how policy should target density and why, in practice, the tradeoff between its pros and cons is unhappily resolved by both market and political forces.

JEL-codes: D72 Q53 R11 R23 R31 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (96)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.34.3.3 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E119268V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.34.3.3.ds (application/zip)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Economics of Urban Density (2020)
Working Paper: The Economics of Urban Density (2020)
Working Paper: The Economics of Urban Density (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:34:y:2020:i:3:p:3-26

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/jep.34.3.3

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().