This is a course from an 'urban economics' perspective, in close interdisciplinary dialogue with geography points of view. Urban economics will be broadly interpreted, including local public good provision, the spatial distribution of activities, economic geography, and some insight into urban and regional policy. In order to conduct urban research, some basic knowledge of the literature on why cities exist and the micro-foundations of urban agglomeration are crucial. The course starts with introductory lectures on these problems' statement, research objectives, empirical analysis, and the underlying research questions. The following lectures will be devoted to the discussion of research strategies, the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, and the analysis of empirical results.

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The course will survey some theoretical and empirical literature about canonical urban models; the benefits and costs of cities; neighborhoods and inequality. Three main topics are scrutinized: 1. Social sciences approaches to urban studies between critical urban theory and mainstream urban knowledge (Prof. Governa) (3h); 2. Microeconomic features of urban development (Prof. Buzzacchi) (3h); The second part of the course will be devoted to the analysis of data and to the application of proper methodologies for assessing the effect of agglomeration on productivity and the role of agglomeration for explaining the North-South Italian divide. 3. In particular, the following methodological issues will be introduced and (in part) tested (6h): - means, medians, and quantiles analysis - OLS regression with exogenous explanatory variables - OLS regression with endogenous explanatory variables - quantile regression

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Presentazione report scritto

P.D.1-1 - Gennaio