Episode Details

"Nothing really succeeds as planned, but it succeeds on the side of the plan."

Are you interested in market-oriented urban development? What do you think about cities as friends? How can we create projections without making them regulations?

Interview with Alain Bertaud, urbanist and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, urban economics and labour markets, planned cities, changing demographics, urban attraction, and many more.

Alain Bertaud is a renowned urbanist and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, as well as a senior research scholar at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management. Author of the influential book Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities (2018), he previously served as principal urban planner at the World Bank. His research, often with his wife Marie-Agnès, explores the interplay between urban forms, real estate markets, and regulations. In 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from CEPT University in India.

Find out more about Alain through these links:

• Alain Bertaud on LinkedIn
• Alain Bertaud website
• Alain Bertaud at the Mercator Center
• Alain Bertaud at the the Marron Institute of Urban Management
• Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities - book by Alain Bertaud
• Is Thomas Piketty Misreading Balzac? - article by Alain Bertaud
• Why ‘Casablanca’ Is the Quintessential City Movie - article by Alain Bertaud

Connected episode you might be interested in:

• No.409R - The case for economic growth as the path to better human wellbeing
• No.410 - Interview with Casey Handmer about the need for urban economic growth
• No.420 - Interview with Josh Dorfman about urban economics
• No.429R - Cities as labor markets – The efficiency of large labor markets is the main cause of ever-growing cities

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