The author's father was an architectural historian. What did you learn from him about the economics of building that has fed into your work? I learned nothing. My economics i learned from my mother, who got her mba columbia and worked in capital markets for mobile for many years. She explained bertrand competition to me, and it was like the most magical thing in the world. Every city is going to be more vulnerable to natural disaster if its existing social institutions are weaker. Can larger cities succeed over the longer term with dis functional public schools?"
With remote work becoming more common and cities competing for businesses it’s become easier than ever before for educated Americans to relocate, leaving cities more vulnerable than they’ve ever been. In their new book, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation, economists David Cutler and Ed Glaeser examine the factors that will allow some cities to succeed despite these challenges, while others fail.
They joined Tyler for a special joint episode to discuss why healthcare outcomes are so correlated with education, whether the health value of Google is positive or negative, why hospital price transparency is so difficult to achieve, how insurance coding systems reimburse sickness over health improvement, why the U.S. quit smoking before Europe, the best place in America to get sick, the risks that come from over-treatment, the possible upsides of more businesses moving out of cities, whether productivity gains from remote work will remain high, why the older parts of cities always seem to be more beautiful, whether urban schools will ever improve, why we shouldn’t view Rio de Janeiro’s favelas as a failure, how 19th century fights to deal with contagious diseases became a turning point for governance, Miami's prospects as the next tech hub, what David and Ed disagree on, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded August 31st, 2021 Other ways to connect
Thumbnail photo credit: Briana Moore