Density Economics

Urban neoliberalism: More housing, better transit, land value taxation, and prices on congestion & carbon

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How to Price Congestion: The Benefits of Dynamic Variable Tolling

Executive Summary In 2019, congestion in Manhattan’s Central Business District (CBD) reached its worst levels on record, with average daytime traffic speeds falling to 7 mph from 9.1 mph in 2010. This is no surprise. Overuse of Manhattan’s roads is an entirely predictable outcome: a “tragedy of the commons”—of treating the roads as an unpriced…

Fixing Broken Mirrors: How Low-Level Police Abuse Spurs Other Bad Behavior

People around the country, including New Yorkers, are calling for major policing reforms in response to perceived abuse, most vividly illustrated by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Some activists are demanding that police departments be abolished entirely, others insist on radical “defunding” of police budgets, and others suggest more modest reforms. Here in…

Urban, Dense: A Defense

Why conservatives should care about cities Population density is taking a beating as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban centers from Wuhan to New York City are hot spots for the virus, and many people argue, based on plausible intuitions, that urban crowding is to blame for its spread. Not all the evidence is…

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