If you are tasked with writing a great analytical essay on the topic of urban economics, then you should start off on a great foot by reviewing the potential twenty topics listed below. See if any of these fits within the parameters of your writing assignment and let the creativity flow:
To write a better analytical essay on urban economics, you must surely go through the facts on urban economics together with the writing guide. Of course, writing a good analytical essay about urban economics requires more than just selecting the topic, flicking through some facts, which is why you will find a sample essay below on one of the topics listed above:
Urban economics is a vast field whose theories dictate that the location of workers and their firms is directly related to the production of products, competition, costs, and the growth of cities. In theory equilibrium is achieved among all manufacturing firms when each location maintains equal footing in various regions. If there are two distinct regions, the West region and the East region, there could exist three companies manufacturing different product varieties in both the East and the West regions. So long as each company maintains production in a specific region with limited imports into the opposite region, equilibrium can be achieved. The reason for this is that the same employment opportunities exist in both regions for all potential workers. Because of the similar demand and the similar supply the wages available for employees also remains roughly even. When companies in the East want to supply products to the west, they have to pay for transportation costs which are referred to as the trade costs. In supplying products to the east to be imported the Western manufacturers have to increase the price of their products to cover the trade cost.
If an increase in price for imported products took place, many consumers would purchase if you imported products in exchange for higher numbers of local products. That being said companies in the East can produce local products and consumers will buy imported products from the west at a smaller rate compared to the products that they purchase from local suppliers in the east. With this in mind cities do not grow exponentially, urban landscapes remain roughly the same, and all businesses have the ability to compete within the open market at regular competitive prices and demand , forcing them to focus instead on simply providing a unique variety to similar products.
This can be changed when a single manufacturer from the West decide to move the firm, relocating it to the east. When the relocation from the west to the east takes place, production changes, trade cost goes away and demand changes too. When the trade cost goes away consumers are more likely to purchase products from the newly relocated Western company now situated inside of the eastern region. In some cases this will naturally balance out, reverting back to the equilibrium which once existed by way of a similar manufacturing firm located in the east simply moving their production to the west. By doing this the two companies switch places and maintain the same products, profits, and consumer base demand. Of course the alternative to this is that the increased profits now gained by the Western company that recently moved to the eastern region serve as a tantalizing suggestion or opportunity for the other company remaining in the West. As such additional companies in the West can relocate to the east, essentially taking all profits away from those local eastern based manufacturers.
When things like this take place changes in demographics, larger city development, and grand changes to the economic landscape are inevitable. Again a potential change to this can be the natural swap of the aforementioned companies from the east simply assuming the open opportunity now left in the West. In all cases this serves as a prime example of how production and location influence city development and are imperative to the understanding of urban economics and development. Overall fluctuation in the economic landscape can impact the development of cities, and by extension can impact the development of urban policies and land planning as well as urban living policies. As companies grow and changes take place in the existing workforce, manufacturing landscape, and product availability, subsequent changes have to take place in terms of policy and workers, wages, and products.
References
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Arnott, Richard, and Daniel P McMillen. A Companion To Urban Economics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006. Print.
Harvey, J, and Ernie Jowsey. Urban Land Economics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.
O’Sullivan, Arthur. Urban Economics. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2003. Print.
Perloff, Harvey S, and Lowdon Wingo. Issues In Urban Economics. [Baltimore]: Published for Resources for the Future [Washington] by the Johns Hopkins Press, 1968. Print.
Rasmussen, David W. Urban Economics. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Print.
Segal, David. Urban Economics. Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin, 1977. Print.