This paper begins by chronicling the stunning inequality (economic and other) that characterizes the U.S. economy and U.S. cities. The development of cities in the United States in recent decades is linked quite essentially to the dynamics and contradictions of U.S. capitalism, including a policy agenda that has been pro-capital and anti-urban. The penultimate section of the paper shows that neoclassical theory – with its focus on “choice” – provides a deeply inadequate explanation of urban inequality. And yet neoclassicism, along with its cruder relative, neoliberalism, has continued to shape the narrative of U.S. cities. The final section argues for a “multidisciplinary economics” that recognizes that a rich urban economics requires insights from political science, sociology, geography, and other academic disciplines.
AlbeldaR.WithornA.2002. Lost ground: Welfare reform, poverty, and beyond. South End Press.
2.
AlexanderM.2010. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
3.
AnnieE.Casey Foundation. 2012. Child poverty rates increase in 44 of 50 largest cities between 2005 and 2011.
4.
AtkinsonA. B.PikettyT.SaezE.2011. Top incomes in the long run of history. Journal of Economic Literature49 (March).
5.
Bartels. 2008. Unequal democracy: The political economy of the new gilded age. New York: Russell Sage.
6.
BluestoneB.StevensonM. H.WilliamsR.2008. The urban experience. New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
BomeyJ.GallagherJ.How Detroit went broke. Detroit Free Press, Sept. 15.
8.
ChettyR.HendrenN.KlineP.SaezE.2013. The Equality of Opportunity Project: Summary of project findings.
9.
Citizens for Tax Justice. 2010. United States remains one of the least taxed industrial countries.
10.
Citizens for Tax Justice. 2009. The Bush tax cuts cost two and a half times as much as House Democrats’ health care proposal.
11.
CorakM.2006. Do poor children become poor adults? Lessons from a cross country comparison of generational earnings mobility. IZA Discussion Paper, No. 1993.
12.
D’AddioA.2007. Intergenerational transmission of disadvantage: Mobility or immobility across generations? OECD Social, Employment and Migration, Working Papers, No. 52.
13.
DreierP.MollenkopfJ.SwanstromT.2004. Place matters. University of Kansas Press.
14.
SwanstromT.CaseyC.FlackR.DreierP.2004. Pulling apart: Economic segregation among suburbs and central cities in major metropolitan areas. Brookings Institution.
15.
FishmanR.2000. The American metropolis at century’s end: Past and future influences. Housing Policy Debate11 (1): 199-213.
16.
FrankR. H.CookP. J.1995. Winner take all society: Why the few at the top get so much more than the rest of us. The Free Press.
17.
FriedmannJ.1986. The world cities hypothesis. Development and Change17 (1): 69-83.
18.
GilensM.2005. Inequality and democratic responsiveness in the United States. Public Opinion Quarterly69 (5).
19.
GoldinC.MargoR.1992. The great compression: The wage structure in the United States at mid-century. Quarterly Journal of Economics107 (1): 1-34.
20.
GordonD. M.1987. Left, right and center: An introduction to political economy. In The imperiled economy. New York: URPE.
21.
GordonD. M.1978. Capitalist development and the history of American cities. In Marxism and the metropolis, ed. TabbW. K.SawersL.New York: Oxford University Press.
22.
HackerJ. S.PiersonP.2010. Winner take all politics. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
23.
HarveyD.2012. Rebel cities. New York: Verso.
24.
HarveyD.1973. Social justice and the city. Blackwell Publishers.
25.
KoechlinT.2013. The rich get richer: Neoliberalism and soaring inequality in the US. Challenge55 (2) (March/April).
26.
KrugmanP.2003. The death of Horatio Alger. The Nation (December18).
27.
MishelL.BivensJ.GouldE.ShierholzH.2012. The state of working America. Economic Policy Institute.
28.
NoahT.2012. The great divergence. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
29.
OECD. 2011. An overview of rising income inequalities in OECD countries: Main findings.
