Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

Cities for families?

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In response to David Albouy & Jason Faberman's new NBER paper, Skills, Migration and Urban Amenities over the Life Cycle, Lyman Stone asks if this means that cities will always have lower fertility? I think the answer is probably yes, but that's extrapolating beyond the paper at hand. What this … [Read more...]

Morton’s Fork and urbanism

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I recently read about an interesting logical fallacy: the Morton's fork fallacy, in which a conclusion "is drawn in several different ways that contradict each other." The original "Morton" was a medieval tax collector who, according to legend, believed that someone who spent lavishly you were … [Read more...]

Review: Key to the City, by Sara Bronin

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In Key to the City, Sara Bronin both critiques and defends zoning.  Like numerous other commentators (including myself) Bronin points out that anti-density regulations such as minimum lot size and minimum parking requirements artificially increase housing costs.  Her critique of the latter … [Read more...]

Toward an Erdmann synthesis

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Kevin Erdmann has a good op-ed in the Washington Post today, arguing one of the two core points that have defined his work for the past several years: Fannie and Freddie have set credit standards too high since 2007. (His other core point, that "closed access" superstar cities have made it too hard … [Read more...]

Are we spiralling into a new dark age? | Analysis and review of Jacobs’ Dark Age Ahead

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Jane Jacobs wasn’t optimistic about the future of civilisation. ‘We show signs of rushing headlong into a Dark Age,’ she declares in Dark Age Ahead, her final book published in 2004.  She evidences a breakdown in family and civic life, universities which focus more on credentialling than on actually … [Read more...]

Lessons from Cities and the Wealth of Nations: a manual for urban policymakers

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Continuing this series of book reviews on Jane Jacobs’ works, I now turn to Cities and the Wealth of Nations. But there is already a fantastic piece on the Market Urbanism website, by Matthew Robare, who reviews this book and outlines what Jacobs overlooks in her analysis. So, this piece takes a … [Read more...]

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