Jobs and Land Use within Cities: A Survey of Theory, Evidence, and Policy

Abstract

Over the last century, the urban spatial structure of cities has transformed dramatically from a traditional monocentric configuration to varying forms of decentralized organization. This paper reviews theory and empirical evidence to understand the urban morphology of jobs and land use within a city. Our survey highlights four broad insights: (i) The evolution of monocentric to polycentric centers have been accompanied by structural changes within the city. (ii) The internal geography of a city is an outcome of the trade-off between the pull from agglomeration economies and the push from congestion. (iii) The presence of externalities implies that the equilibrium spatial organization achieved by profit-maximizing firms may not necessarily be optimal. This justifies the role of public policy in addressing associated market failures. (iv) The productive edge and competitiveness of a city can be enhanced by introducing policies that increase the overall connectivity to take advantage of economic opportunities across the metropolitan area. The survey also puts together a wide range of policy instruments useful in closing the gap between equilibrium urban spatial structures and the optimal outcome.

Does the Differentiation of China’s Land Policy Promote Regional Economic Development?

“…According to urban economics theory, conducting land use regulation is necessary to internalize the negative externalities of the spatial agglomeration of population and economic activities, which can correct market failures [32][33][34][35]. From the perspective of coordinated regional development, the allocation of land resources is presented as the allocation of construction land indicators between regions [1]; a city's productive strengths and competitiveness can be enhanced by introducing policies to improve overall connectivity [36]. Under the Chinese land system, the government dominates the allocation of land resources as the supplier and manager of construction land indicators [37].…”

The Routledge Companion to Technology Management

“…A significant class of technology policies pursue economic growth through improved physical and environmental infrastructure. There are few research exemplars of this infrastructure-led approach, despite the clear theoretical need for such explanations (Ahlfeldt and Wendland 2013, Knowles and Ferbrache 2016, Goswami and Lall 2019, Proost and Thisse 2019, Heider and Siedentop 2020. This need presents a research gap that can be addressed by using emerging sources of geospatial data concerning land use and infrastructure networks (Porta et al 2006, Barthelemy 2011, Florida et al 2012, Blondel et al 2015, Thakuriah et al 2018, Boeing 2020, Duranton and Puga 2020.…”

“…Sectoral diversity and density are critical components of urban agglomeration (Harrison et al 1996, Duranton and Puga 2000, Duranton and Puga 2005. The density of local employment is structured by economic organization, and provides an indicator of the efficient operation of local labour markets (Ciccone and Hall 1996, Scott and Storper 2003, Goswami and Lall 2019. Together these variables include necessary covariates for the research, while creating a complete portrait of the urban fabric.…”

Uncovering commercial activity in informal cities

“…Most straightforwardly, hubs of economic activity require services and transport connections to thrive [ 4 ]. These connections facilitate, among other things, better labour market matching between workers and firms and increase the accessibility of services and products to a wider catchment area [ 5 ]. Knowledge about job and firm density is also critically important in other domains such as urban planning and disaster resilience.…”

“…Distinct agglomeration patterns have been observed for manufacturing and services industries, with the latter benefiting from lower land costs and greater returns on access to labour and knowledge spillovers [ 50 , 51 ]. Less is known about agglomeration forces, however, at a finer within-city spatial scale [ 5 ]. A small but growing number of studies suggest that agglomerative forces such as knowledge spillovers and inter-firm learning—key to the success of service firms—decline heavily with distance within cities (as reviewed in [ 52 ]), thus providing a clear rationale for further research on the topic [ 53 ].…”