Urban Economics

  • What drives urban agglomeration?
  • How does urbanization benefit people and firms?
  • Do housing allowances increase rents?
  • Why is segregation harmful?
  • What are the effects of urban transportation improvements?
Data visualization

Urban economics studies the forces that lead to the creation of cities and regional concentration of people and jobs, as well as the distribution of economic activity within cities. Eliminating distance between people makes it easier to transport goods, match workers with employers, and circulate ideas. However, urbanization also presents a number of problems, such as congestion, high housing costs, and residential segregation. Understanding how these outcomes are driven by our choices across space is key for policymaking in a rapidly urbanizing world.

The work of the urban economics group covers topics such as housing markets and housing policy, transportation, migration, segregation and urban politics. We study these topics using both reduced form and structural methods leveraging high-quality microdata.

For Master's students interested in these topics, here is a list of recommended courses.

We organize a bi-weekly Trade, Regional and Urban Economics seminar. For more information, please contact Prottoy Akbar (prottoy.akbar@aalto.fi).

We also organize PhD workshops where PhD students can present their preliminary research ideas as well as ongoing research projects. Please contact Pablo Warnes (pablo.warnes@aalto.fi) for more information.

Chair

Members

  • Kwok Hao Lee

    National University of Singapore

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar
  • Florian Oswald

    University of Turin

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar
  • Nicolas Gendron-Carrier

    McGill University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar
  • Jakob Vanschoonbeek

    KU Leuven

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar