Order without Design

This book argues that urban planning can greatly benefit by applying the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. The author, a renowned urban planner with five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities worldwide, explains how markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities' development, examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities, stresses the importance of mobility and affordability, and critiques land use regulations that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of alleviating clear negative externalities. By linking cities' productivity to the size of their labor markets and discussing the new role joint teams of urban planners and economists can play, this book offers valuable insights for anyone interested in the welfare of urban citizens.