Relevance to HUD of Recent Scholarly Research in Urban Economics

摘要

This report constitutes an experimental attempt to assess the recent scholarly literature in urban economics for its relevance to HUD's policy problems. Its purpose is to assist HUD officials responsible for the periodic review and revision of public finance and urban economic development research priorities. The report covers books by economists on urban subjects and articles which have appeared in professional journals since 1974. It introduces the topics on which policymakers concerned with urban finance and economic development issues require information. Such topics are the urban economy's base, the city's fiscal capacity, financial issues, and economic development problems. The report then describes the problems addressed by the economics literature since 1974 and compares the policymakers' topics of concern with subjects in the literature, identifying areas where the available research is particularly limited. Finally, the report notes deficiencies with respect to the volume of studies, their quality, and their direct policy relevance and discusses the kinds of research needed to fill important information gaps. Findings indicate that the 'city as an entity' was the most widely studied topic, followed by property taxes. The research on Federal policy was indicated to be wide - ranging but lacking in analytical features, while research on local government services was the best developed topic. Overall, the treatment of the economic base is inadequate from a policymaking standpoint, although the literature provides a theoretical context. Furthermore, the deficiencies identified in the extant literature suggest research priorities for HUD. Generally, HUD's objectives should be to promote the development of a better information base on urban finance and local economic development. Appendices present a quality ranking of journals and a bibliography listing books and articles on urban finance and economic development noted by the 'Journal of Economic Literature' between 1974 and 1978.