Location matters. Economic activities vary across space. Locations shape individuals' labor market opportunities, residential choices, schooling, and accessibility to consumption and services. For firms, locations determine the cost of inputs and outputs, the level of competition, accessibility to markets, local regulations and policies, and, thus, profits. The aggregation of individuals’ and businesses’ location decisions affects the size and performance of cities and regions.

This course will be taught in Mandarin, though most, if not all, course materials will be in English. The course, Topics in Urban Economics, designed for students with an advanced understanding of microeconomics and econometrics, introduces core ideas and models in urban economics, especially related to city formation, size, productivity, and housing prices. In this course, we will apply microeconomic concepts to understand the differences in economic activities across spaces. We will also investigate the role of cities and regions in aggregate economic development. Finally, we will discuss applications to related fields in economics, including labor economics, economics of race and discrimination, environmental economics, and other socioeconomic topics related to spaces.

Another main goal of this course is to introduce research strategies, modeling tools, and potential measurement and identification problems while studying urban economics. These tools and methods can also be useful in various economic topics, especially for your thesis.