Urban economics at a cross-road: Recent theoretical and methodological directions and future challenges

Abstract

In this chapter, our aim is to present a reflection on theoretical and methodological advances in urban economics in order to highlight recent and new scientific directions and future challenges. The reasons behind this interest are manifold. The first reason concerns the fact that urban economics is at the core of regional science; it is a strategic discipline whose future trends and developments in theoretical and methodological contributions will be decisive for the future of regional science as a whole, as the basic models in urban location theory of Von Thünen, Alonso,Christaller and Lösch did in the past.