Lecture 1

▪ What is urban economics?

▪ What is a city?
▪ Importance of cities; why do we need to study cities
▪ Challenges of urban growth
▪ Urban trends
Global
Regional
Select Asian countries
Philippines

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What is urban economics?

Explain how and why • Uses the tools and concepts of microeconomics
cities are formed and (maximizing utility and profits)
urban design • Introduces spatial and location factor

Understand • Clustering and agglomeration

urbanization concepts • Housing in cities
and issues • Urban transportation

Use models to explain • Congestion

urban phenomena • Pollution
and provide solutions • Traffic
to urban problems • Health risks
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 What is a city?

an area with a population density that is high relative to

the density of the surrounding area (O’Sullivan)
• firms and households are concentrated in a relatively
small area
• frequent contact between different economic
activities

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 What is an urban area?

Facilities
• Municipal/city hall
Philippine Statistics Authority criteria for urban • Church/ chapel/
barangays mosque
• Plaza/ park Cemetery
• Population size of 5000 or more • Market place
• Public school
buildings
• At least one establishment with 100 or more
• Hospital/ barangay
employees health center
• Fire station
• At least 5 establishments with 10-99 employees • Seaport
and at least 5 facilities within a 2-kilometer radius • Waterworks system
of the barangay hall • Postal office
• Calling station/
landline system
• Cellular phone signal
• Public street sweeper
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 Philippine cities

Components cities Highly urbanized cities

• P100 million annual • P50 million annual

income income
• 150,000 population • 200,000 population
• 100 km2 area • 100 km2 area
• By Law • Presidential proclamation

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(Chilledsunshine GNU
Free Documentation
License)

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 7
Patrickroque01 at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
User: Naplee12 at wikivoyage shared / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) 8
R.T. Lim Blvd.
By Wowzamboangacity / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
By Jojo Lacerona - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90692490 9
By Tim Dangerfield - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13082211 10
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By Judgefloro / CC0
https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1010678 12
How many did you get right?

Is it easy to identify a city?

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 Being urban is a spectrum
High population density
Sufficient population
Sufficient output
Diverse economic activities