The Biden Administration is about to enact a new infrastructure law that will spend more than $1 trillion dollars on rebuilding America's infrastructure. Cities such as Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis need new investment to boost the local economy, reduce local poverty, and increase the quality of life of children in these cities. My co-authored 2021 book; "Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities" explores the synergistic investments that are needed to help the many poor people who live in poor cities to achieve their own "American Dream". Unlike other urban books, our book focuses on how to use free markets and the private sector to be the catalyst here. The microeconomic approach to thinking about urban revitalization offers many new insights for how such post-industrial cities can escape the local poverty trap. My book (co-authored with the wise Mac McComas) has received six 5 star reviews on Amazon. This average rating is much higher than my book ratings for my other books.
Urban economists have written about the synergies between investments in people and place based infrastructure. In a series of co-authored papers, I have measured these effects. Here are a few examples;
Siqi Zheng & Matthew E. Kahn, 2013. "Does Government Investment in Local Public Goods Spur Gentrification? Evidence from Beijing," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 41(1), pages 1-28, March.
- Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2015. "Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 564-569, May.
Seungwoo Chin & Matthew E. Kahn & Hyungsik Roger Moon, 2020. "Estimating the Gains from New Rail Transit Investment: A Machine Learning Tree Approach," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(3), pages 886-914, September.
- Dong, Lei & Du, Rui & Kahn, Matthew & Ratti, Carlo & Zheng, Siqi, 2021. "“Ghost cities” versus boom towns: Do China's high-speed rail new towns thrive?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
- Kahn, Matthew E. & Sun, Weizeng & Wu, Jianfeng & Zheng, Siqi, 2021. "Do political connections help or hinder urban economic growth? Evidence from 1,400 industrial parks in China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
Since Mac and I know that we do not know all of the answers about the likely impacts of the Biden Infrastructure plan for distressed cities, we have participated in a series of enlightening interviews.
Poor cities that experience job growth and improvements in quality of life often experience gentrification. We discuss this complex issue with Emily Badger of the New York Times.
Job Creation and entrepreneurship is essential for a city to flourish. We discuss barriers to entry with Harvard's Edward Glaeser
In recent years, Pittsburgh has made a comeback. What are the lessons to be learned from this important case study? We speak to Richard Florida of the University of Toronto.
In our book, we emphasize the key role that mayors play in determining the local "rules of the game" and setting policies and expectations. We discuss Michael Bloomberg's success as Mayor of New York City in an in depth discussion with NYU's Mitchell Moss
Small businesses can be a key piece in the puzzle for creating wealth and private sector jobs in cities. We speak with NYU's Arpit Gupta about issues related to urban economics and corporate finance in helping startups to launch in cities.
From my two years living and working in Baltimore, I saw a city with great potential whose leaders need to embrace the free market approach to help all of its current and future residents to thrive. The upcoming investments by the Biden Administration in such cities will only have a lasting impact if these cities have created "rules of the game" that increase the investment by; 1. young people investing in their skills, 2. business investment in creating new firms and private sector job growth, 3. government creating a business friendly environment and a safe, green, clean city, 4. real estate interests investing in upgrading the city's aging physical capital stock.
For an overview of the entire book, watch this video that covers Chapter One of our book: