Two Views of Urban Crisis

A relatively late arrival in the sphere of applied economics, the new branch of urban economics has grown at a phenomenal rate—at least in terms of the volume of literature. But unfortunately not many among the growing number of new volumes on urban economics have much to say that has not already been said before. A large number of them are no more than loose collections of quantitative models, which might have served at one time or another as the basis of some elaborate urban deve­lopment plan but finally never got off the ground. The two volumes under review stand out as being refreshingly different in this dense but monotonous terrain.