Edward Glaeser: Triumph of the City

Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Elanor Glimp professor of economics at Harvard. At out 2018 conference he shared some evidence of why he believes cities are humanity's most important invention, and our greatest hope for the future.

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[eliterun]

Fascinating presentation by a wonderful presenter. I don't know that I buy the driver of 2000-2010 city growth, as it's pretty answerable due to demographic change, while the reasoning the presenter gives doesn't answer relative decline of urban populations in prior periods, like say the 90s. Urban areas are also net population sinks, and have been since the beginning of time. Cities net negative population growth long-term and survive on internal migration.


I really wonder, again, at Glaeser's explanation of population growth by temperature. Are we sure that it's not explainable by catch-up of less-developed warmer regions to more-developed colder regions over the course of the 20th century? In short, it seems that Glaeser takes a coincidental variable (climate) and uses it to explain meta-trends that are explainable by other means.


It's weird how much information there is that makes unspoken assumptions -- that constant contact in an office setting is good, vs. having a balance, as the research would show.


Scorecard:
Supply/demand factors of RE investing in regions: solid
why cities are growth engines: solid
What caused & will cause population movement: jury's out