Densely Speaking

The (Express)Way to Segregation: Evidence from Chicago (Sara Bagagli) Sara Bagagli is an Assistant Professor of Real Estate Economics and Finance at London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research contributes to our understanding of what drives the (unequal) distribution of people and economic activity across space, focusing on the role of transportation infrastructure and urban forms. Her 2023 paper, The (Express)Way to Segregation: Evidence from Chicago, examines the long-established view that highways acted to increase segregation. Did expressways increase racial segregation in urban centers? Professor Bagagli establishes that expressways contributed to racial segregation in Chicago through two channels: (1) local price and amenity effects and (2) barrier effects. From these findings, she then constructs a structural urban model to study the link between urban barriers and racial preferences in shaping the allocation of people across space. Appendices: Sara Bagagli: Ann Petry, The Street. Greg Shill: Pete Saunders, Two Chicagos, Defined. Jeff Lin: Hammond's Pictorial Travel Atlas of Scenic America. Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff and Greg can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social, and @gregshill.com. Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Procurement and Infrastructure Costs (Zach Liscow) Zach Liscow is Professor of Law at Yale Law School. From 2022-23, he was the Chief Economist at the White House Office of Management and Budget. We discuss his recent article, Procurement and Infrastructure Costs (with William Nober and Cailin Slattery), which collects new project-level data and surveys of state DOT officials to document variation in infrastructure procurement costs across states and identify cost drivers, including capacity and competition. Appendices: Zach Liscow: Robert Kagan, Adversarial Legalism Greg Shill: Brian Potter, Why Can’t the U.S. Build Ships? Jeff Lin: Abhay Aneja & Guo Xu, Strengthening State Capacity: Civil Service Reform and Public Sector Performance during the Gilded Age Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff, Greg, and Zach can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social, @gregshill.com, and @zliscow.bsky.social. Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

How Much Road Does America Have? (Erick Guerra) Professor Erick Guerra is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. We discuss his recent article,Urban Roadway in America: The Amount, Extent, and Value (with Gilles Duranton & Xinyu Ma), which provides the first comprehensive estimate of the amount, share, and value of roadways across over 300 U.S. metro areas. Appendices: Erick Guerra: Erick Guerra, Overbuilt: The High Costs and Low Rewards of US Highway Construction. Greg Shill: Jeffrey Brinkman & Jeffrey Lin, Freeway Revolts! The Quality of Life Effects of Highways. Jeff Lin: Foursquare OS Places. Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking. Jeff and Greg can be found on Bluesky at @jeffrlin.bsky.social and @gregshill.com. Greg also has a Substack newsletter. Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

In a Bad State: Responding to State and Local Budget Crises (David Schleicher) David Schleicher is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law at Yale Law School. He is the author of In a Bad State: Responding to State and Local Budget Crises. He also co-hosts the podcast Digging a Hole with YLS colleague Samuel Moyn. Appendices: David Schleicher: New York Times article The Queen Bee of Bidenomics and American Compass proposal On Infrastructure Financing. Greg Shill: Fire & Steam: How the Railways Transformed Britain by Christian Wolmar. Jeff Lin: Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Since 1939 by Mark Rose and Raymond Mohl. Follow us on the web or on “X,” formerly known as Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, and @ ProfSchleich. Producer: Nathan Spindler-Krage The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Neighborhood Formation and Neighborhood Effects (Dionissi Aliprantis) Dionisi Aliprantis is an assistant vice president and a senior research economist in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the director of the Bank’s Program on Economic Inclusion, and the founding director of the Math Movement. He is the author of “Making Our Neighborhoods, Making Our Selves”: A Review Essay with Daniel Hartley. Appendices: Dionissi Aliprantis: Brilliant.org and Vsauce on The Banach-Tarski Paradox Greg Shill, Professor of Law & Michael and Brenda Sandler Faculty Fellow in Corporate Law, University of Iowa College of Law: The Radical Fair Housing Act, by Noah Kazis Jeff Lin: 3Blue1Brown Series on Neural Networks Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Blockbusting and the Challenges Faced by Black Families in Building Wealth through Housing in the Postwar US (Jonathan Rose) Jonathan Rose is the Historian of the Federal Reserve System and senior economist and economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is the co-author of Blockbusting and the Challenges Faced by Black Families in Building Wealth through Housing in the Postwar United States (with Daniel Hartley). Other Materials Mentioned: A Spatial Animation of Blockbusting Racial Segregation in Housing Markets and the Erosion of Black Wealth The Saturday Evening Post: Confessions of a Block-Buster Appendices: Jonathan Rose: East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity” Greg Shill: Detroit’s Birwood Wall: Hatred and Healing in the West Eight Mile Community. Jeff Lin: Urban Life in the Distant Past: The Prehistory of Energized Crowding (Urban Archaeological Pasts). Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia or Chicago, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

The National Zoning Atlas (Sara Bronin and Scott Markley) Densely Speaking programming note: this is the first episode of our new season. Sara Bronin, Professor at the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, is the Director of the National Zoning Atlas. Scott Markley is the Geospatial Project Coordinator at the National Zoning Atlas and a visiting professor at Cornell. Appendices: Scott Markley: Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? Sara Bronin: Lowcountry at High Tide; The Sirens of Mars. Greg Shill, Professor of Law and Michael and Brenda Sandler Faculty Fellow in Corporate Law, University of Iowa College of Law: A Research Agenda for US Land Use and Planning Law. Jeff Lin: House Size and Household Size: The Distributional Effects of the Minimum Lot Size Regulation. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Remote Work and City Decline: Lessons From the Garment District (Clay Gillette) Clay Gillette is the Max E. Greenberg Professor of Contract Law at New York University School of Law. He is the author of Remote Work and City Decline: Lessons from the Garment District, 15 Journal of Legal Analysis 201 (2023). Appendices: Clay Gillette: the book In a Bad State (by David Schleicher), work by Joan Didion, TV shows Borgen, Fauda, Shtisel, and The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, and the movie Oppenheimer. Greg Shill: the novel A Confederacy of Dunces, the New Yorker short story series Sell Out, and the TV show Rough Diamonds. Jeff Lin: journal articles Networking off Madison Avenue and The Curley Effect: The Economics of Shaping the Electorate, and Trees? Not in My Backyard. (Jerusalem Demsas) in the Atlantic. Follow us on the web or on Twitter/X: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. The hosts are also on Bluesky at @jeffrlin and @gregshill. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Firms, Fires, and Firebreaks: The Impact of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster on Business Agglomeration James Siodla is an Associate Professor of Economics at Colby College. He is the author of Firms, fires, and firebreaks: The impact of the 1906 San Francisco disaster on business agglomeration. We also discuss related work by him: Clean slate: Land-use changes in San Francisco after the 1906 disaster and Razing San Francisco: The 1906 disaster as a natural experiment in urban redevelopment. Extra Materials Discussed in this Episode: Sanborn Maps; The Limits of Power Appendices: James Siodla: Disruptive Effects of Natural Disasters: The 1906 San Francisco Fire by Hanna Schwank and Destruction, Policy, and the Evolving Consequences of Washington, DC’s 1968 Civil Disturbance by Leah Brooks, Jonathan Rose, and Stan Veuger. Greg Shill: Succession and History versus Expectations in the Spatial Economy: Lessons from Hiroshima by Kohei Takeda and Atsushi Yamagishi. Jeff Lin: A Long History of a Short Block: Four Centuries of Development Surprises on a Single Stretch of a New York City Street by William Easterly, Laura Freschi, and Steven Pennings. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, and @JSiodla Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

The Role of Private Law in Land Use Regulation (Molly Brady) Molly Brady is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is the author of Turning Neighbors into Nuisances. Appendices: Molly Brady: Magic Mike’s Last Dance and This $5,750-a-Month Brooklyn Apartment Has a Smell Test. Greg Shill: the Culdesac development and its reported lease condition that residents not park within 400 meters of the development in Tempe, AZ. Local government law bonus: minutes of the Tempe Development Review Commission meeting discussing this. Jeff Lin: The Rise and Effects of Homeowners Associations, by Wyatt Clarke and Matthew Freedman. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @mollyxbrady. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

The Impact of WFH on Brick-and-Mortar Retail (Lindsay Relihan) Lindsay Relihan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business at Purdue University. She is the author of The Impact of Work-from-Home on Brick-and-Mortar Retail Establishments: Evidence from Card Transactions, with James Duguid, Bryan Kim, and Chris Wheat. Appendices: Lindsay Relihan: Cities and Covid, Thus Far by Gilles Duranton and Jessie Handbury, Silo Series, and The Mars Trilogy. Greg Shill: Remote Work Sticks for All Kinds of Jobs, Wall Street Journal. Jeff Lin: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @RelihanLindsay Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

The Work-from-Home Technology Boon and Its Consequences (Andra Ghent) Andra Ghent is Professor of Finance at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. She is the author of The Work-from-Home Technology Boon and Its Consequences, with Morris A. Davis and Jesse Gregory. Appendices: Andra Ghent: the miniseries Show Me a Hero and the book Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It by Nolan Gray. Also mentioned: Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington, Working Remotely? Selection, Treatment, and the Market for Remote Work and Emanuel, Harrington & Amanda Pallais, The Power of Proximity to Coworkers: Training for Tomorrow or Productivity Today? Greg Shill: The Puzzle and Persistence of Biglaw Clustering (summarized in this blog post) Jeff Lin: Growth in Cities, revisited Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. On Threads: Jeff is @jeffrlin and Greg is @just_shilling. Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Work From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse (Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh) Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh is the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is the author of Work From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse (joint with Arpit Gupta and Vrinda Mittal). Appendices: Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh: The City in Transition: Prospects and Policies for New York by the Temporary Commission on City Finances, City of New York (1977). Greg Shill: Internet Appendix to today’s paper: Asset Pricing Model to Infer Expected Returns and Assortative Matching at the Top of the Distribution: Evidence from the World’s Most Exclusive Marriage Market by Marc Goñi. Jeff Lin: Looking Back to Look Forward: Learning from Philadelphia’s 350 Years of Urban Development by Joseph Gyourko, Robert Margo and Andrew Haughwout. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @SVNieuwerburgh. Producer: Courtney Campbell. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part III This episode is the third and final in a series based on a new special issue on Urban Economics and History in Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with authors and concludes Season 2 of the show. Today’s Guests: Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Leah Brooks is an Associate Professor at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Ting Chen is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hong Kong Baptist University. David Nagy is a Junior Researcher at Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI), an Adjunct Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and a Barcelona School of Economics Affiliated Professor. Yanos Zylberberg is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol. Jason Barr is a Professor of Economics at Rutgers University-Newark. Papers Discussed in Today’s Episode: What Can Developing Cities Today Learn from the Urban Past? by Ed Glaeser What if You Build It and They Don’t Come? How the Ghost of Transit Past Haunts the Transit Present by Leah Brooks and Genevieve Denoeux War Shocks, Migration, and Historical Spatial Development in China by Ting Chen and James Kung Quantitative Economic Geography Meets History: Questions, Answers and Challenges by David Nagy Urban Economics in a Historical Perspective: Recovering Data with Machine Learning by Pierre-Philippe Combes, Laurent Gobillon, and Yanos Zylberberg Viewing Urban Spatial History from Tall Buildings by Gabriel Ahlfedlt and Jason Barr Firms, Fires, and Firebreaks: The Impact of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster on Business Agglomeration by James Siodla Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Special thanks to our outgoing producer Schuyler Pals (Schuyler, you'll be greatly missed - thank you and good luck on the bar exam!) Our theme music is by Oleksandr Koltsov. Sounds from Ambience, London Street by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part II This episode is the second in a series based on a forthcoming special issue on Urban Economics and History, to be published in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with multiple authors. Guests: Brian Beach is Assistant Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University and Dan Bogart is Professor of Economics at the University of California Irvine. Robert Margo is Professor of Economics at Boston University. Alexander Whalley is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business. Katherine Eriksson is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California Davis and Allison Shertzer is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Papers Discussed in Today’s Episode: Water Infrastructure and Health in U.S. Cities by Brian Beach. Infrastructure and Institutions: Lessons from History by Dan Bogart. Industrialization and Urbanization in Nineteenth Century America by Jeremy Atack, Robert Margo, and Paul Rhode. 150 Years of the Geography of Innovation by Michael Andrews and Alexander Whalley. Immigrants and Cities during the Age of Mass Migration by Katherine Eriksson and Zachary Ward. Zoning and Segregation in Urban Economic History by Allison Shertzer, Tate Twinam, and Randy Walsh. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. Our theme music is by Oleksandr Koltsov. Sounds from Ambience, London Street by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Special Series on History and Urban Economics - Part I This episode is the first in a series based on a forthcoming special issue focused on Urban Economics and History, to be published in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics. It contains a series of short conversations with multiple authors. Guests: Walker Hanlon is Associate Professor of Economics at Northwestern University and Stephan Heblich is Associate Professor and Munk Chair of Economics at the University of Toronto. Maarten Bosker is Professor of International Trade and Development at Erasmas University of Rotterdam. Noel Johnson is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Treb Allen is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College Papers Discussed in this Episode: History and Urban Economics by Walker Hanlon and Stephan Heblich City Origins by Maarten Bosker Medieval Cities Through the Lens of Urban Economics by Remie Jedwab, Noel Johnson, and Mark Koyoma Persistance and Path Dependence: A Primer by Treb Allen and Dave Donaldson What Future for History Dependence in Spatial Economics by Jeffrey Lin and Ferdinand Rauch Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill. Hosts: Jeff Lin and Greg Shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. Special theme music for this series: Oleksandr Koltsov Ambience, London Street, A by InspectorJ. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Evan Mast, Does Building New Apartments in Low-Income Areas Cause Displacement? Evan Mast, Assistant Professor of Economics at Notre Dame, is our guest. The focus of the conversation is Evan's paper Local Effects of Large New Apartment Buildings in Low Income Areas (with Brian J. Asquith and Davin Reed). Kate Pennington, Economist at the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies, is our guest co-host. Check out Kate's working paper Does New Housing Cause Displacement?: The Supply and Demand Effects of Construction in San Francisco, which uses a different identfication strategy but reaches similar results. Appendices: Evan Mast: Proud Old, Stubborn Old Wicker Park by Robert Cross Kate Pennington: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle Jeff Lin: Razing San Francisco: The 1906 Disaster as a Natural Experiment in Urban Redevelopment by James Siodla Greg Shill: State and Local Government Blog posts Teaching Cities in “The City” by Clay Gillette and How Uncordinated Land Use and Transportation Laws Thwart Climate Response by Sara Bronin Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @evanmast2, and @katempenn. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Constitutional Law for NIMBYs? The guests discuss the National League of Cities' Principles of Home Rule for the 21st Century, which two of them (Nestor Davidson and Richard Schragger) helped draft and the third (David Schleicher) has criticized as "Constitutional Law for NIMBYs." Nestor Davison is the Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law and the Faculty Director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham Law School. Richard Schragger is the Bowen Professor of Law and Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at UVA Law School. David Schleicher is Professor of Law at Yale Law School and host of the Digging a Hole podcast. In addition to the National League of Cities' Principles of Home Rule for the 21st Century, the papers at the heart of the conversation are Do Local Governments Really Have Too Much Power? (by Nestor and Richard) and Constitutional Law for NIMBYs (by David). Appendices: Nestor Davison: City-Wide Effects of New Housing Supply: Evidence From Moving Chains by Cristina Bratu, Oskari Harjunen, and Tuukka Saarimaa Supply Shock Versus Demand Shock: The Local Effects of New Housing in Low-Income Areas by Brian Asquith, Evan Mast, and Davin Reed Richard Schragger: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (movie) David Schleicher: Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States and the Nation by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez Greg Shill: Sky-High Vaccination Rates and Zero Taxes Make Dubai a Pandemic Boom Town (in The Wall Street Journal) Jeff Lin: I Changed My Mind About Rent Control by Jerusalem Demsas From Samurai to Skyscrapers: How Historical Lot Fragmentation Shapes Tokyo by Junichi Yamasaki, Kentaro Nakajima, and Kensuke Teshima Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @davidson_nestor, @RichSchragger, and @ProfSchleich, and check out David's hit podcast (with Samuel Moyn) Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Diego Puga's Favorite Urban Economics Papers of 2021 Diego Puga is Professor of Economics at CEMFI in Madrid, Spain. In recent years, he has made a tradition of sharing his favorite urban economics papers of the year (specifically, urban econ articles published in the calendar year). In this interview, we chat about his favorites from 2021. They appear below as well as in this thread. He did similar threads for 2020, 2019, and 2018. Diego’s Ten Favorite Urban Econ Articles Published in 2021: The Internal Spatial Organization of Firms: Evidence from Denmark by Camilo Acosta and Ditte Håkonsson Lygnemark in the Journal of Urban Economics. Location as an Asset by Adrien Bilal and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg in Econometrica. The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France by Pierre-Philippe Combes, Gilles Duranton, and Laurent Gobillon in the Journal of Political Economy. Are Poor Cities Cheap for Everyone? Non-Homotheticity and the Cost of Living Across U.S. Cities by Jessie Handbury in Econometrica. East-Side Story: Historical Pollution and Persistent Neighborhood Sorting by Stephan Heblich, Alex Trew, and Yanos Zylberberg in the Journal of Political Economy. Building the City: From Slums to a Modern Metroplis by J. Vernon Henderson, Tanner Regan, and Anthony J. Venables in the Review of Economic Studies. Planning Ahead for Better Neighborhoods: Long-Run Evidence from Tanzania by Guy Michaels, Dzhamilya Nigmatulina, Ferdinand Rauch, Tanner Regan, Neeraj Baruah, and Amanda Dahlstrand in the Journal of Political Economy. The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors by Enrico Moretti in the American Economic Review. Commuting and Innovation: Are Closer Inventors More Productive? by Hongyu Xiao, Andy Wu, and Jaeho Kim in the Journal of Urban Economics. The Economics of Speed: The Electrification of the Streetcar System and the Decline of Mom-and-Pop Stores in Boston, 1885-1905 by Wei You in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Appendices: Diego Puga: Provides examples of areas where urban economists could benefit from more interaction with urban planners to get better information about whether new initiatives are actually doing what we claim they do, including superblocks in Barcelona and the 15 Minute City in Paris. Eg: Super Blocks in Barcelona; The 15 Minute City. Greg Shill: Musings on the Boston streetcar paper (Economics of Speed), Location as an Asset, and the interaction between real estate prices and firm experimentation, noting the role of Kaldi’s, a local coffee roaster/distributor, in raising the floor for the quality of coffee at locations in St. Louis (where Greg is visiting at Washington University School of Law this semester). Eg: an interview with the founder. Jeff Lin: On (Not) Reading Papers by Jan Hendrik Kirchner and Reading Books Versus Engaging With Them by Holden Karnofsky. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, and @ProfDiegoPuga Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Peter Norton, The Past and Future of Driving in High-Tech Cities Peter Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He is the author of the new book Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving as well as Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City and Persistent Pedestrianism: Urban Walking in Motor Age America, 1920s-1960s. Appendices: Peter Norton: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Greg Shill: How Reporters Can Evaluate Automated Driving Announcements by Bryant Walker Smith; Rewriting Our Nation’s Deadly Traffic Manual by Gregory H. Shill and Sara C. Bronin; Did Highways Cause Suburbanization? by Nathaniel Baum-Snow; and Freeway Revolts!: The Quality of Life Effects of Highways by Jeffrey Lin and Jeffrey Brinkman. Jeff Lin: Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways by Joseph F.C. DiMento and Cliff Ellis. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, and @greg_shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.