Brookings Institution Press 2006, Paper Text, 0-8157-4815-9, $18.95
To order and to read the first chapter go to:
http://www.brookings.edu/press/books/greencities.htm
What is a green city? What does it mean to say that San Francisco or Vancouver is more "green" than Houston or Beijing? When does urban growth lower environmental quality, and when does it yield environmental gains? How can cities deal with the environmental challenges posed by per-capita income growth, population growth and sprawl? These are the questions Matthew Kahn takes on in this smart and engaging book.
Written in a lively, accessible style, Green Cities takes the reader on a tour of the extensive economic literature on the environmental consequences of urban growth. Kahn starts with an exploration of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)-the hypothesis that the relationship between environmental quality and per capita income follows a bell-shaped curve. He then analyzes several critiques of the EKC and discusses the implications of growth in urban population and sprawl, as well as income. The concluding chapter addresses the role of cities in promoting climate change and asks how cities in turn are likely to be affected by this trend.
This 160 page book could be used as supplemental reading in both environmental economics classes and urban economics classes.
Matthew E. Kahn is a Professor of Economics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. After earning his PHD in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1993, he served on the faculty at Columbia University. He has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and Stanford University. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Regional Science and of Regional Science and Urban Economics. He has published numerous articles on environmental and urban topics. He blogs on these topics at
greeneconomics.blogspot.com
