Book Reviews Triumph of the City

This is an enjoyably readable celebration of the city by a prominent urban economist, until now known more for heavy theory than writing for a popular audience. The basic target of the book is the anti-urbanism that abounds in the popular imagination, in the national politics of many countries, and even in certain corners of the academic community. Glaeser synthesizes the theory and evidence that cities are sources of high productivity, wealth, social mobility, innovation, mutual understanding and personal freedom and even environmental sustainability. The images of cities as cauldrons of inequality, ethnic conflict, destruction of nature, alienation and such, which dominate much of the discussion, are not so much false, as they are one-sided and lacking in nuance. This book is a welcome corrective to that. It also exudes the writer’s affection for cities, and shows an attractive intellectual breadth and sharp wit. Because the book is written as a popular tome, relying heavily on examples and anecdotes, its theoretical structure is not worn on its sleeve. The book is nonetheless informed by the strong theoretical framework from Glaeser’s important work in urban economics and the output of regional scientists. This framework is used to generate some very strong positions on why new urban regions develop, central cities versus suburbs, and how urban and regional policy can make metropolitan regions function better. Moreover, the book does not limit itself to merely arguing against anti-urbanism; it trumpets the ‘triumph’ of the city as the key to human development in the 21st century. These three issues—the book’s theoretical framework; its policy framework; and its vision of the 21st century—are the central concerns of this review. Urban and regional economics is focused on the thorny question of what drives change in the populations, activities and wealth levels of cities and regions. Simplifying, we can say that there are two big sorting mechanisms, of people and households and of firms. These occur at three scales: people move between regions (e.g. New York to Houston); between center cities and their suburbs; and among neighborhoods within a metropolitan region. Scholars try to understand both the causes of such sorting behavior and their outcomes, and whether policy is doing the right or wrong thing in relation to these processes. The problem is that sorting mechanisms work in both directions: people follow jobs, but jobs also follow people. In practice, scholars emphasize one or the other. Glaeser overwhelmingly focuses on individuals (or households) making choices about where they live, and relegates the behavior of firms and location of jobs to the background. He considers the choices of individuals and households that locate in center cities, and those who choose the suburbs. Expensive and glamorous urban areas, such as central cities in general, and places like New York and London in particular, grow, according to Glaeser, because individuals seek opportunities for consumption and leisure, and interaction with other people who resemble them. Thus, in a chapter on London entitled ‘Is London a luxury resort?’ Glaeser argues that its recent growth can be accounted for by its status as a ‘playground’ for the rich. The chapter makes no mention of the financial services industry (i.e. jobs) as a force in attracting people to London and generating the income that is spent on its many pleasures. People don’t go to cities such as Phoenix or Houston for the same reasons that they go to London or San Francisco. To explain why people go to Sunbelt cities, Glaeser draws on what is known to economists as the ‘real utility equalization’ view of migration and location Journal of Economic Geography 11 (2011) pp. 1079–1082 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbr026 Advance Access Published on 7 September 2011