The course delves into the economic mechanisms that shape cities and urban life. It explores the reasons behind city formation, the benefits and costs of urban agglomeration, and the complex dynamics of land use patterns. The course also examines urban challenges such as sprawl, housing affordability, transportation issues, and the environmental impacts of urbanization, including pollution. Furthermore, it addresses social issues within urban contexts, such as crime, segregation, and the distribution of public goods, offering insights into the policies that can manage these aspects effectively. For more information, visit the BSoE course catalog.

The course covers the quantification and simulation of quantitative spatial models. This entails: i) working with spatial data to generate the necessary model inputs; ii) setting, estimating, and inverting the primitives of the model; iii) using numerical procedures to solve for the spatial general equilibrium and conduct counterfactual analysis. The course is applied in the sense that the focus is on the computational implementation of quantitative spatial models. We cover, among others, the Frisch Medal-awarded Econometrica paper "The Economics of Density: Evidence from the Berlin Wall", by Ahlfeldt, Redding, Sturm, and Wolf. For more information, vistit the BSoE course catalog or the Humboldt University Moodle course page. Selected exhibits from the course work of the 2024 cohort are available here.