High Density Means High Employment

I’ve just read a great editorial by Ryan Avent in the New York Times called ‘One Path to Better Jobs: More Density in Cities’

Ryan defines the things that make a city a city and a not-city a not-city is the fact that a city is dense and a not-city isn’t.  And, he argues that when it comes to economic growth and the creation of jobs, the denser the city the better and that density brings many benefits.

Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Some studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity from between 6 and 28 percent and other economists have concluded that more than half the variation in output per worker across the United States can be explained by density alone.

I’ve always thought that higher density (compared to suburban sprawl) is good for the economic viability of cities and here’s some more support for that proposition.  So, there’s another reason why strata and community title development, ownership and living is a good thing.

Ryan Avent is also the author of the Kindle Single “The Gated City” from which his editorial was adapted.

Francesco ….