Brief Course Description
1. Course Title:
Urban economics and management
2. Language of Instruction:
Vietnamese
3. Course Code:
URB601082
4. Credits:
2
5. Course Objectives:
This course equips students with a comprehensive understanding of the economic forces shaping cities and urban systems. It examines how land, labor, transportation, and housing markets interact within the urban environment, and how these interactions influence spatial organization, growth, and policy outcomes. Students will explore key models such as the monocentric city model, theories of agglomeration and firm clustering, and frameworks for urban land use, commuting, and housing policy. The course also integrates issues of urban sustainability, governance, and inequality, helping students critically analyze and evaluate urban planning and management policies from both economic and social perspectives. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply economic reasoning to assess urban policies and propose strategies that promote efficient, equitable, and sustainable cities.
6. Brief Description of Course Content:
Urban economics is not a course of the economic sector in the urban area. Urban economics is founded on the main fundamentals of microeconomic theory, combined with regional science and the major of land use and transportation. Urban economics as a branch of economics was born in the 1960s in the United States. The participation in research and application of economists in the following years, this major has developed strongly, including the theoretical foundation (monocentric city model) and the application based on the characteristics of spatial distribution of economic activity and housing in U.S. cities.
Urban economics has had different development of theoretically and applications in each period, which was mainly developed in North America and Europe. In recent years, researchers in this field pay attention to the issues of economic activity agglomeration/clustering and economic efficiency due to the clustering of economic activity, and the spread of knowledge, urbanization, and the distribution of labor and employment. Researchers from East Asia and Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam have also been interested in this field since the 2000s.
The knowledge gained from urban economics will help learners understand the economic laws that govern human activities and behavior in urban areas and in cities. These economic laws are the basis to help learners evaluate the effectiveness of land planning on an economic basis. At the same time, these laws support learners in understanding real estate and the real estate market.