TY  - JOUR
A1  - Borck, Rainald
A1  - Pflüger, Michael
T1  - Green cities? Urbanization, trade, and the environment
JF  - Journal of regional science
N2  - Is urbanization good for the environment? This paper establishes a simple core-periphery model with monocentric cities, which comprises key forces that shape the structure and interrelation of cities to study the impact of the urban evolution on the environment. We focus on global warming and the potential of unfettered market forces to economize on emissions. The model parameters are chosen to match the dichotomy between average "large" and "small" cities in the urban geography of the United States, and the sectoral greenhouse gas emissions recorded for the United States. Based on numerical analyzes we find that a forced switch to a system with equally sized cities reduces total emissions. Second, any city driver which pronounces the asymmetry between the core and the periphery drives up emissions in the total city system, too, and the endogenous adjustment of the urban system accounts for the bulk of the change in emissions. Third, none of the city drivers gives rise to an urban environmental Kuznets curve according to our numerical simulations. Finally, the welfare-maximizing allocation tends to involve dispersion of cities and the more so the higher is the marginal damage from pollution.
KW  - city structure
KW  - city systems
KW  - commuting costs
KW  - environmental Kuznets curve
KW  - environmental pollution
KW  - global warming
KW  - housing
KW  - trade costs
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12423
SN  - 0022-4146
SN  - 1467-9787
VL  - 59
IS  - 4
SP  - 743
EP  - 766
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -