Quantitative Urban Models: From Theory to Data

Economic activity is highly unevenly distributed within cities, as reflected in the concentration of economic functions specific locations, such finance Square Mile London. The extent to which this reflects natural advantages versus agglomeration forces central a range public policy issues, including impact local taxation and transport infrastructure improvements. This paper reviews recent quantitative urban models, incorporate both differences forces, can be taken directly observed data on cities. We show that these models used estimate strength evaluate transportation improvements welfare spatial distribution activity.