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.

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...]

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...]

Mumbai upzoning

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Geetika Nagpal's job market paper, written with Sahil Gandhi, shows that a 2017 increase in allowed floor area ratio in Mumbai had a tremendous impact on affordability by accidentally improving the economics of smaller apartments. (Note that the authors are updating the paper, so some of the … [Read more...]

Is zoning unconstitutional?

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Two law professors, Joshua Braver of Wisconsin and Ilya Somin of George Mason, are coming out with an article suggesting that exclusionary zoning (by which they mean, rules such as apartment bans and minimum lot sizes that are designed to exclude people less affluent than an area's current … [Read more...]

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