ABSTRACT

In the last few decades, urban quality of life has received increasing interest from policy makers who aim to make cities better places to live. In addition to the aim of improving quality of life, sustainable and equitable development is also often included in the policy agendas of decision makers.

This book aims to link quality of life to related issues such as sustainability, equity, and subjective well-being. While less than one-third of the world's population lived in cities in 1950, about two thirds of humanity is expected to live in urban areas by 2030. This dramatic increase in the number of people living in urban areas serves as the backdrop for this book’s analysis of cities.

This book will be useful to students and researchers in economics, architecture and urban planning, sociology and political sciences, as well as policy makers.

chapter 1|43 pages

Urbanization

An overview

chapter 3|25 pages

Measuring urban quality of life

A life satisfaction approach

chapter 6|24 pages

Agglomeration economies and urban location benefits

The debate around the existence of an optimal city size