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Is New York City Too Small?

Geoff Riley

28th August 2015

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The NIMBY-ism (‘not in my backyard’) of local politics leads to a bias against large cities that constrains national productivity growth. That is the central conclusion of a study by Frederic Robert-Nicoud, Nathan Seegert and colleagues, presented at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in Mannheim in August 2015.

These researchers find that the world’s most productive cities – such as New York City and San Francisco – may be vastly undersized and that
society may be better off with inhabitants crowding into half as many cities as they currently do.

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Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for nearly forty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD and Revision conferences in the UK and overseas.

@tutor2uGeoff

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