2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate major in Civil Engineering
Urban Economic Analysis
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Civil Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Yuki Takayama
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Mon (W5-105) / 7-8 Thu (W5-105)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- CVE.D406
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 4Q
- Syllabus updated
- Oct 3, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
To find rational urban policies, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms behind urban problems and predict the effectiveness of policy measures. Urban economics is a field of economics that serves as the foundation for these considerations and possesses crucial features, even from a civil engineering perspective, as it allows for the proper evaluation of the benefits of public policies. In this lecture, we will cover not only the fundamental theories required for urban economic analysis but also methods for applying them to policy evaluation.
Course description and aims
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. explain the mechanisms of spatial agglomeration of economic activities;
2. explain the characteristics of the spatial distribution of economic activities within a city and the mechanisms giving rise to them;
3. explain the regularities observed in the distribution of city sizes and the mechanisms leading to them;
4. explain methods for evaluating the effects of various urban and transportation policies.
Keywords
urban economics, equilibrium, policy analysis
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
While teaching theoretical foundations of urban economics, exercises will also be conducted.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction of urban economics |
aims & scopes of this course |
| Class 2 | Location theory |
basic concepts of location theory; monocentric model (closed city) |
| Class 3 | Evolutionary game theory |
population game |
| Class 4 | Evolutionary dynamics |
evolutionary dynamics; revision protocol |
| Class 5 | Properties of equilibrium |
existence; uniqueness; stability |
| Class 6 | Economic analysis of traffic congestion |
traffic congestion model; negative externalities |
| Class 7 | Mid-term presentation |
presentation |
| Class 8 | Empirics in urban economics I |
land use regulations |
| Class 9 | Land use model with traffic congestion |
congestion pricing; land use |
| Class 10 | System of cities: equilibrium and optimum |
system-of-cities model; city size |
| Class 11 | New economic geography |
new economic geography model; bifurcation |
| Class 12 | Quantitative spatial economics |
quantitative spatial model; quantitative urban model |
| Class 13 | Computable general equilibrium model |
SCGE (spatial computable general equilibrium) model |
| Class 14 | Empirics in urban economics II |
agglomeration |
| Class 15 | Summary |
urban economics and policy evaluation |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To facilitate effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for each class and an additional 100 minutes reviewing class content afterward, including assignments. Please utilize the course materials for this purpose.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Fujita, M. (1989). Urban Economic Theory: Land Use and City Size. Cambridge University Press.
Fujita, M., & Thisse, J.-F. (2013). Economics of Agglomeration: Cities, Industrial Location, and Globalization. Cambridge University Press.
Fujita, M., Krugman, P. R., & Venables, A. J. (1999). The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions and International Trade. MIT Press.
Sheffi, Y. (1985). Urban Transportation Networks: Equilibrium Analysis with Mathematical Programming Methods. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Sandholm, W. H. (2010). Population Games and Evolutionary Dynamics. MIT Press.
Evaluation methods and criteria
exercises (20%), reports (80%)
Related courses
- CVE.D201 ： Infrastructure Planning
- CVE.D301 ： Traffic and Transportation Systems
- CVE.D311 ： Public Economics
- CVE.D405 ： Transportation Science and Simulation
Prerequisites
Students must have successfully completed CVE.D201, CVE.D301, and CVE.D311 or have equivalent knowledge.