Attractive places: The WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW - Docent Lecture by Oana Mihaescu

Welcome to Docent Lecture by Oana Mihaescu, Södertörn University!
ME609 or Zoom (see link below)

What are attractive places? Why should we care about place attractiveness? How can we develop our cities and regions to be more attractive, and how can we measure their attractiveness?

Going back to urban planning theories, attractive places are defined in relation to their form and content. The ”good” city is a diverse city, created for everybody and providing something to everybody. Economic theories ellucidate how and why the ”good city” is also a place that fosters economic growth and what are the mechanisms through which growth may be achieved.

Among others, breeding agglomeration economies in terms of both economies or localization and economies of urbanization is often used as a tool for regional development. Questions about the effectiveness of such tools have been raised over the years, while too few attempts to robustly measure their impacts have been made. In this lecture, Oana Mihaescu will offer insights into how we can use statistical models to isolate the effects of various planning decisions aimed at increasing the attractiveness of our cities and regions.