Regional and Urban Economics Parts 1 & 2

Introduction

A major problem in designing an encyclopedia is to avoid unnecessary duplication of material. Accordingly, the editors of the Encyclopedia of Economics instructed the field editors to focus on knowledge that is unique to the field or which originated in the field, and to avoid knowledge that is derivative from other fields. In choosing contributions for the Encyclopedia, I tried to adhere to this principle. As a result, not all of regional and urban economics is surveyed, but rather highlights in original contributions.

Since most empirical and policy analysis is derivative in the above sense, the Encyclopedia covers mainly theory. This implies no judgment that theory is superior to empirical and policy analysis. Indeed, to the contrary, ...