Urban development and control on urban land rents

Abstract

The city and the overall urban system perform two essential roles closely connected with each other: first, they ensure territorial efficiency for economic activities by furnishing public goods and externalities, thereby supporting the competitiveness of such activities; second, they ensure collective well-being for the communities within them by furnishing urban quality and services. It is evident that economic success finances quality, and that such quality proves attractive to external activities and populations, thus boosting growth and development. Moreover, when territorial efficiency is understood in modern and advanced terms as resource-efficiency-primarily efficiency in the use of land, natural resources and energy, but also of human capital-territorial efficiency policies simultaneously pursue objectives of sustainability and innovation/competitiveness.