Handbook

This course provides a foundation of city and regional economics with a range of key economic concepts and models to shape urban land uses, firm locations and housing and labour market systems in cities. The  course encompasses the following main areas: micro/macroeconomic processes that drive urban land use, governance and planning systems; market failures as the source of urban planning problems; development feasibility and the economic theories of urbanisation, gentrification and globalisation. In particular micro-economic and macro-economic processes underpin urban land-use patterns, property values, activity and transport systems. The processes of economic growth and decline are a perennial consideration of planning at different scales. Therefore the course focuses on development and planning across metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions. Students gain an understanding of how planning objectives are influenced by the aggregate impacts of uneven economic growth processes and economic behaviour. They gain familiarity with the potentialities and limitations of public policy in influencing spatial outcomes through studying economic issues and problems. Practical techniques for analysing spatial structure and development projects are introduced. Instruction is through lectures and tutorials.