The Science of Cities

Author

Joe Ornstein

Published

January 29, 2026

Week 1 (1/20): Scale

Why do we live in cities?

Required Reading

  • Glaeser, Edward L. (2005). “Urban Colossus: Why Is New York America’s Largest City?” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review. [pdf].

Lecture

Deep Dives

  • Krugman, Paul R. Geography and Trade. Gaston Eyskens Lecture Series. Leuven University Press ; MIT Press, 1991. Chapter 2.

  • West, Geoffrey B. Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies. Penguin, 2017. Chapter 1.

  • Bettencourt, Luís M. A., et al. “Growth, Innovation, Scaling, and the Pace of Life in Cities.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, no. 17 (2007): 7301–6. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610172104.

  • Schiff, Nathan. “Cities and Product Variety: Evidence from Restaurants.” Journal of Economic Geography 15, no. 6 (2015): 1085–123. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbu040.

  • Carlino, Gerald A., Satyajit Chatterjee, and Robert M. Hunt. “Urban Density and the Rate of Invention.” Journal of Urban Economics 61, no. 3 (2007): 389–419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2006.08.003.

  • Glaeser, Edward L., Jed Kolko, and Albert Saiz. “Consumer City.” Journal of Economic Geography 1, no. 1 (2001): 27–50. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/1.1.27.

  • Accetturo, Antonio, Michele Cascarano, and Guido de Blasio. “Pirate Attacks and the Shape of the Italian Urban System.” Working Paper, 2020, 49.

  • Davis, Donald R., and David E. Weinstein. “Bones, Bombs, and Breakpoints: The Geography of Economic Activity.” The American Economic Review 92, no. 5 (2002): 1269–89. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282802762024502.

Week 2 (1/27): Urbanization

Why are some places urbanized while others are predominantly rural?

Required Reading

  • De Long, J. Bradford, and Andrei Shleifer. “Princes and Merchants: European City Growth before the Industrial Revolution.” The Journal of Law & Economics 36, no. 2 (1993): 671–702.

Lecture

Deep Dives

  • Dittmar, Jeremiah E. “Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of The Printing Press.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126, no. 3 (2011): 1133–72. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr035.

  • Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. “The Potato’s Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence from a Historical Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126, no. 2 (2011): 593–650. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr009.

  • Voigtländer, Nico, and Hans Joachim Voth. “The Three Horsemen of Riches: Plague, War, and Urbanization in Early Modern Europe.” Review of Economic Studies 80, no. 2 (2013): 774–811. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rds034.

  • Bosker, Maarten, Eltjo Buringh, and Jan Luiten van Zanden. “From Baghdad to London: Unraveling Urban Development in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, 800–1800.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 95, no. 4 (2013): 1418–37. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00284.

  • Dincecco, Mark, and Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato. “Military Conflict and the Rise of Urban Europe.” Journal of Economic Growth 21, no. 3 (2016): 259–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-016-9129-4.

  • Mayshar, Joram, Omer Moav, and Luigi Pascali. “The Origin of the State: Land Productivity or Appropriability?” Journal of Political Economy, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1086/718372.

  • Brunt, Liam, and Cecilia García-Peñalosa. “Urbanisation and the Onset of Modern Economic Growth.” The Economic Journal 132, no. 642 (2022): 512–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueab050.

  • Scott, James C. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Yale Agrarian Studies. Yale University Press, 2017. Chapter 4.

Week 3 (2/3): The Density Divide

Why do political parties cluster by population density? Why does it matter?

Required Reading

  • Rodden, Jonathan. Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide. First edition. Basic Books, 2019. Introduction and Chapter 1.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Gimpel, James G., Nathan Lovin, Bryant Moy, and Andrew Reeves. “The Urban–Rural Gulf in American Political Behavior.” Political Behavior 42, no. 4 (2020): 1343–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09601-w.

  • Wilkinson, Will. “The Density Divide: Urbanization, Polarization, and Populist Backlash.” Niskanen Center, 2019, 1–79.

  • Brown, Jacob R., and Ryan D. Enos. “The Measurement of Partisan Sorting for 180 Million Voters.” Nature Human Behaviour, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01066-z.

  • Chen, Jowei, and Jonathan Rodden. “Unintentional Gerrymandering: Political Geography and Electoral Bias in Legislatures.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 8 (2013): 239–69. https://doi.org/10.1561/100.00012033.

  • Abrams, Samuel J., and Morris P. Fiorina. “‘The Big Sort’ That Wasn’t: A Skeptical Reexamination.” PS: Political Science & Politics 45, no. 02 (2012): 203–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096512000017.

  • Mummolo, Jonathan, and Clayton Nall. “Why Partisans Do Not Sort: The Constraints on Political Segregation.” The Journal of Politics 79, no. 1 (2017): 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/687569.

  • Brown, Jacob R., Ryan D. Enos, James Feigenbaum, and Soumyajit Mazumder. “Childhood Cross-Ethnic Exposure Predicts Political Behavior Seven Decades Later: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data.” Science Advances 7, no. 24 (2021): eabe8432. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe8432.

Week 4 (2/10): Voting With Your Feet

What if we operated local government like a market?

Required Reading

  • Somin, Ilya. “Foot Voting, Federalism, And Political Freedom.” Nomos 55 (2014): 83–119.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Derenoncourt, Ellora. “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration.” American Economic Review 112, no. 2 (2022): 369–408. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200002.

  • Blom‐Hansen, Jens, Kurt Houlberg, and Søren Serritzlew. “Size, Democracy, and the Economic Costs of Running the Political System.” American Journal of Political Science 58, no. 4 (2014): 790–803. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12096.

  • Hajnal, Zoltan L., and Jessica Trounstine. “Who or What Governs?: The Effects of Economics, Politics, Institutions, and Needs on Local Spending.” American Politics Research 38, no. 6 (2010): 1130–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X10362870.

  • Penn, Elizabeth Maggie. “Institutions and Sorting in a Model of Metropolitan Fragmentation.” Complexity 9, no. 5 (2004): 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20039.

  • Lü, Xiaobo, and Pierre F. Landry. “Show Me the Money: Interjurisdiction Political Competition and Fiscal Extraction in China.” American Political Science Review 108, no. August (2014): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000252.

  • Jensen, Nathan M., Edmund J. Malesky, and Matthew Walsh. “Competing for Global Capital or Local Voters? The Politics of Business Location Incentives.” Public Choice 164, nos. 3–4 (2015): 331–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-015-0281-8.

  • Bradbury, John Charles. “Sports Stadiums and Local Economic Activity: Evidence from Sales Tax Collections.” Journal of Urban Affairs, April 27, 2022, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2022.2044837.

  • Bradbury, John Charles, Dennis Coates, and Brad R. Humphreys. “The Impact of Professional Sports Franchises and Venues on Local Economies: A Comprehensive Survey.” Journal of Economic Surveys, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12533.

Week 5 (2/17): Political Participation

Who actually participates in local democracy?

Required Reading

  • Berry, Christopher R. Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments. Cambridge University Press, 2009. Chapters 1 and 2.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Auerbach, Adam Michael, Shikhar Singh, and Tariq Thachil. “Who Knows How to Govern? Procedural Knowledge in India’s Small-Town Councils.” American Political Science Review 119, no. 2 (2025): 708–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000297.

  • Anzia, Sarah F., and Jessica Trounstine. “Civil Service Adoption in America: The Political Influence of City Employees.” American Political Science Review 119, no. 2 (2025): 549–65. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000431.

  • Hajnal, Zoltan L., Vladimir Kogan, and G. Agustin Markarian. “Who Wins When? Election Timing and Descriptive Representation.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 4 (2025): 1454–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12930.

  • Collins, Jonathan E. “Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings.” American Political Science Review, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000320.

  • Anzia, Sarah F. “Election Timing and the Electoral Influence of Interest Groups.” Journal of Politics 73, no. 2 (2011): 412–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381611000028.

  • Anzia, Sarah F. “Partisan Power Play: The Origins of Local Election Timing as an American Political Institution.” Studies in American Political Development 26, no. 1 (2012): 24–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X11000149.

  • Sahn, Alexander. “Public Comment and Public Policy.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 2 (2025): 685–700. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12900.

  • Einstein, Katherine Levine, Joseph T. Ornstein, and Maxwell Palmer. “Who Represents the Renters?” Housing Policy Debate, Routledge, September 12, 2022, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2022.2109710.

  • Smith, Adrienne R., Beth Reingold, and Michael Leo Owens. “The Political Determinants of Women’s Descriptive Representation in Cities.” Political Research Quarterly 65, no. 2 (2012): 315–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912910395327.

  • Yoder, Jesse. “Does Property Ownership Lead to Participation in Local Politics? Evidence from Property Records and Meeting Minutes.” American Political Science Review 114, no. 4 (2020): 1213–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000556.

Week 6 (2/24): Elections

How is electoral politics different at the local level?

Required Reading

  • Schleicher, David. “Why Is There No Partisan Competition in City Council Elections?: The Role of Election Law.” Journal of Law & Politics 23 (2007): 419.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Trounstine, Jessica. “Dominant Regimes and the Demise of Urban Democracy.” Journal of Politics 68, no. 4 (2006): 879–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00476.x.

  • Gaudette, Jennifer. “Polarization in Police Union Politics.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 3 (2025): 961–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12932.

  • Hartney, Michael T., and Vladimir Kogan. “The Politics of Teachers’ Union Endorsements.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 3 (2025): 1163–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12922.

  • Colner, Jonathan. “Running Towards Rankings: Ranked Choice Voting’s Impact on Candidate Entry and Descriptive Representation.” SSRN Electronic Journal, ahead of print, 2023. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4317298.

  • Bucchianeri, Peter. “Party Competition and Coalitional Stability: Evidence from American Local Government.” American Political Science Review 114, no. 4 (2020): 1055–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000386.

  • Schaffner, Brian F., Matthew Streb, and Gerald Wright. “Teams without Uniforms : The Nonpartisan Ballot in State and Local Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 54, no. 1 (2001): 7–30.

  • de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin, and Christopher Warshaw. “Politics in Forgotten Governments: The Partisan Composition of County Legislatures and County Fiscal Policies.” The Journal of Politics 82, no. 2 (2020): 460–75. https://doi.org/10.1086/706458.

  • Trebbi, Francesco, Philippe Aghion, and Alberto Alesina. “Electoral Rules and Minority Representation in U.S. Cities.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123, no. 1 (2008): 325–57.

  • Tausanovitch, Chris, and Christopher Warshaw. “Representation in Municipal Government.” The American Political Science Review 108, no. 3 (2014): 605–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000318.

Week 7 (3/3): Corruption & Accountability

How does local democracy work if no one is paying attention?

Required Reading

  • Hopkins, Daniel J. The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized. University of Chicago Press, 2018. Chapter 9.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Payson, Julia A. “When Are Local Incumbents Held Accountable for Government Performance? Evidence from US School Districts.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 42, no. 3 (2017): 421–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12159.

  • Benedictis-Kessner, Justin de. “Off-Cycle and Out of Office: Election Timing and the Incumbency Advantage.” The Journal of Politics 80, no. 1 (2018): 119–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/694396.

  • Klašnja, Marko, and Rocio Titiunik. “The Incumbency Curse: Weak Parties, Term Limits, and Unfulfilled Accountability.” The American Political Science Review 111, no. 1 (2017): 129–48. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055416000575.

  • Hayes, Danny. “The Local News Crisis and Political Scandal.” Political Communication 42, no. 6 (2025): 992–1014. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2025.2498533.

  • Moskowitz, Daniel J. “Local News, Information, and the Nationalization of U.S. Elections.” American Political Science Review 115, no. 1 (2021): 114–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000829.

  • Martin, Gregory J., and Joshua McCrain. “Local News and National Politics.” American Political Science Review 113, no. 2 (2019): 372–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000965.

  • Ferraz, Claudio, and Frederico Finan. “Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effects of Brazil’s Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 123, no. 2 (2008): 703–45. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.2.703.

  • Campante, Filipe R., and Quoc Anh Do. “Isolated Capital Cities, Accountability, and Corruption: Evidence from US States.” American Economic Review 104, no. 8 (2014): 2456–81. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.8.2456.

  • Fisman, Raymond, and Edward Miguel. “Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets.” Journal of Political Economy 115, no. 6 (2007): 1020–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/527495.

Week 8 (3/17): Urban Decline and Renewal

What the heck happened to US cities in the mid-20th century?

Required Reading

  • Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Vintage Books, 1975. Introduction.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming!

Deep Dives

  • Scott, James C. Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale Agrarian Studies. Yale University Press, 1998. Chapter 2 (just pg. 53-63) and Chapter 4.
  • Glaeser, Edward L., and Joseph Gyourko. “Urban Decline and Durable Housing.” Journal of Political Economy 113, no. 2 (2005): 345–75. https://doi.org/10.1086/427465.
  • Manville, Michael, and Daniel Kuhlmann. “The Social and Fiscal Consequences of Urban Decline: Evidence from Large American Cities, 1980–2010.” Urban Affairs Review 54, no. 3 (2018): 451–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087416675741.
  • Baum-Snow, Nathaniel. “Did Highways Cause Suburbanization?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 122, no. 2 (2007): 775–805.
  • Nall, Clayton. “The Political Consequences of Spatial Policies: How Interstate Highways Facilitated Geographic Polarization.” Journal of Politics 77, no. 2 (2015): 394–406. https://doi.org/10.1086/679597.
  • Nathan, Noah L. “Do Grids Demobilize? How Street Networks, Social Networks, and Political Networks Intersect.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 4 (2025): 1282–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12912.

Week 9 (3/24): Urban Geometry

What makes a great, livable city? What happens if you design a city around cars?

Required Reading

  • Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage Books, 1961. Part 1.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Speck, Jeff. Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. First paperback edition. North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. pg. 1-35.

  • Gray, M. Nolan. Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. Island Press, 2022. Chapter 1.

  • Duranton, Gilles, and Matthew A. Turner. “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities.” The American Economic Review 101, no. 6 (2011): 2616–52. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.6.2616.

  • Anderson, Michael L. “Subways, Strikes, and Slowdowns: The Impacts of Public Transit on Traffic Congestion.” American Economic Review 104, no. 9 (2014): 2763–96. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.9.2763.

  • de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin, and Maxwell Palmer. “Driving Turnout: The Effect of Car Ownership on Electoral Participation.” Political Science Research and Methods 11, no. 3 (2023): 654–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2021.67.

  • Ellickson, Robert C. “The Law and Economics of Street Layouts: How a Grid Pattern Benefits a Downtown.” Alabama Law Review 64, no. 3 (2013): 463–510.

Week 10 (3/31): Parking

Who pays for free parking?

Required Reading

  • Shoup, Donald C. The High Cost of Free Parking. With American Planning Association. Planners Press, American Planning Association, 2005. Chapter 1.

Lecture

  • No lecture this week. Book club Tuesday and Thursday!

Deep Dives

Tuesday:

  • Shoup Chapter 2. “Unnatural Selection”

  • Shoup Chapters 3-4. “Pseudoscience / Ancient Astronomy”

  • Shoup Chapter 5. “A Great Planning Disaster”

Thursday:

  • Shoup Chapters 6-8. “The Cost / Minimum Telephone Requirements”

  • Shoup Chapters 11-12. “Cruising / The Right Price”

  • Shoup Chapter 15. “Taxing Foreigners Living Abroad”

  • Shoup Chapter 18. “Let Prices Do The Planning”

  • Shoup Chapter 19. “The Ideal Source of Public Revenue”

Week 11 (4/7): Housing

Why is the rent so high?

Required Reading

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Gray, M. Nolan. Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. Island Press, 2022. Chapter 3.
  • Lewyn, Michael. “How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City without Zoning).” Wayne Law Review 50, no. 1171 (2005).
  • Bratu, Cristina, Oskari Harjunen, and Tuukka Saarimaa. “City-Wide Effects of New Housing Supply: Evidence from Moving Chains.” Journal of Urban Economics, January 7, 2023, 103528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103528.
  • Pennington, Kate. “Does Building New Housing Cause Displacement? The Supply and Demand Effects of Construction in San Francisco.” Working Paper, 2021, 64.
  • Dericks, Gerard H, and Hans R A Koster. “The Billion Pound Drop: The Blitz and Agglomeration Economies in London.” Journal of Economic Geography 21, no. 6 (2021): 869–97. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaa022.
  • Hsieh, Chang-Tai, and Enrico Moretti. “Housing Constraints and Spatial Misallocation.” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 11, no. 2 (2019): 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1257/mac.20170388.
  • Schleicher, David. “Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation.” Yale Law Journal 127 (2017): 78–154.
  • Glaeser, Edward, and Joseph Gyourko. “The Economic Implications of Housing Supply.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 32, no. 1 (2018): 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.32.1.3.

Week 12 (4/14): Zoning Politics

Why is it so hard to build new housing?

Required Reading

  • Einstein, Katherine Levine, David M. Glick, and Maxwell Palmer. Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769495. Chapter 1.

Lecture

  • Slides forthcoming

Deep Dives

  • Trounstine, Jessica. “You Won’t Be My Neighbor: Opposition to High Density Development.” Urban Affairs Review, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874211065776.

  • Schleicher, David. “City Unplanning.” Yale Law Journal 122 (2013): 1670–737.

  • de Benedictis-Kessner, Justin, Daniel Jones, and Christopher Warshaw. “How Partisanship in Cities Influences Housing Policy.” American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 1 (2025): 64–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12856.

  • Ornstein, Joseph T., Amanda J. Heideman, Bryant J. Moy, and Kaylyn Jackson Schiff. “Hometown Advantage: Voter Preferences for Community Embeddedness in Local Contests.” Journal of Experimental Political Science, December 3, 2024, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2024.16.

  • Marble, William, and Clayton Nall. “Where Self-Interest Trumps Ideology: Liberal Homeowners and Local Opposition to Housing Development.” The Journal of Politics 83, no. 4 (2021): 1747–63. https://doi.org/10.1086/711717.

  • Fischel, William A. “The Rise of the Homevoters: How the Growth Machine Was Subverted by OPEC and Earth Day.” Working Paper, 2016, 1–26.