Green Cities - Economic Analysis

世界正在迅速城市化。城市被认为是经济增长的引擎和结构变革的源泉。但这座“城市的胜利”对我们的自然环境意味着什么呢？面对全球变暖，分析城市化对环境的影响具有中心的社会政治意义，也是城市经济学中最紧迫的研究问题之一。核心问题是：哪些因素容易将自然资源的使用和污染与人均收入的增长脱钩？市场和稀缺性价格的作用是什么？在没有政策干预的情况下，这种脱钩可能吗？在这个框架中，什么是适当的经济政策？可持续的绿色城市和城市系统的本质是什么？我们是否应该进一步增加城市的密度，建造更多的摩天大楼？一些城市会蓬勃发展成为“绿色”服务型城市，而另一些城市则会成为工业“污染天堂”吗？到目前为止，关于这些问题的经济学文献寥寥无几，留下了很大的研究空白。该项目应对了解导致可持续、绿色城市和城市系统发展的关键因素和进程作出实质性贡献。我们的目标是开发一个理论框架来分析推动城市化和污染相互作用的市场过程，并可用于分析潜在的环境政策以及环境与城市和区域政策的相互作用：首先，该理论应该考虑城市系统的发展-不同规模的城市的发展，城市之间的相互作用和重要的城市间关系-以及城市内部和城市之间的相关污染源。该理论旨在澄清市场过程在避免环境损害方面的潜力和局限性。其次，应将该理论用于分析城市系统的(最优)环境政策，并澄清这些政策与城市和区域政策之间的潜在冲突。第三，重点分析人口压力在城镇化与环境问题关系中的作用。第四，静态框架应扩展到动态的跨期背景，以便分析投资和创新决策的影响--这可能是由政策(“定向技术变化”)引起的--并分析动态(存量污染)问题，特别是气候变化。结果不仅将在一流的国际期刊上发表，而且还将在面向普通公众和政策论坛的媒体上发表。

The world is rapidly urbanizing. Cities are thought to be engines of growth and sources of structural change. But what does this "Triumph of the City" imply for our natural environment? In the face of global warming, the analysis of the effects of urbanization on the environment is of central sociopolitical relevance and one of the most pressing research questions in urban economics. Central questions are: Which factors are prone to decouple natural resource use and pollution from growing per capita incomes? What are the roles of markets and scarcity prices? Is this decoupling possible at all without policy intervention? What are appropriate economic policies in this framework? What is the nature of sustainable, green cities and city systems? Should we further increase the density of our cities and build more skyscrapers? Will some cities thrive to become "green" service cities while others end up as industrial "pollution havens"? Until now, there is just a slim economic literature concerning these questions which leaves large research gaps. The project should make a substantive contribution to the understanding of the key factors and processes which lead to the development of sustainable, green cities and city systems. We aim to develop a theoretical framework to analyze the market processes driving the interaction of urbanization and pollution, and which can be used to analyze potential environmental policies as well as the interaction of environmental and urban and regional policies: First, the theory should account for the development of city systems - the development of cities of different sizes, the interaction among cities and important inter-city relationships - as well as for relevant pollution sources within and between cities. The theory is meant to clarify potentials and limitations of market processes in relation to the avoidance of environmental damages. Second, the theory should be used for the analysis of (optimal) environmental policies for city systems and the clarification of potential conflicts between these policies and urban and regional policies. Third, special emphasis will be put on analyzing the role of population pressure in the relationship between urbanization and environmental problems. Fourth, the static framework shall be extended to a dynamic intertemporal context, in order to analyze the effects of investment and innovative decisions - which may be induced by policies ("directed technical change") - and to analyze dynamic (stock-pollution) problems, especially climate change. The results are to be published not only in first-rate international journals, but also in outlets for the general public and policy forums.