"Recent years have witnessed renewed interest in the economics of cities and regions. This fine collection of essays provides an interesting synthesis of international perspectives on a wide range of topics, including city formation, monopolistic competition models of agglomeration and trade, strategic issues in urban development, urbanization and economic growth, the dynamics of urban spatial structure, and urban unemployment. This collection should be in the hands of everyone interested in the state-of-the-art in urban economics and the 'new' economic geography." Roberty Helsley, University of British Columbia, Canada

• Introduction J. M. Huriot and J. F. Thisse; Part I. Cities and Agglomeration: 1. The formation of economics agglomerations - old problems and new perspectives M. Fujita, J. F. Thisse; 2. Urban economics in retrospect: continuity or change?; C. Baumont, J. M. Huriot; Part II. Urban Systems: 3. City systems: general equilibrium approaches H. M. Abdel-Rahman; 4. Intra-industry specialization and urban development R. Becker, J. V. Henderson, Thomas Gehrig; 5. A monopolistic competition model of urban systems and trade M. Fujita, P. Krugman; 6. Dynamic evolution of the US city size distribution Linda Harris Dobkins, Yannis M. Ioannides; Part III. Urbanization and Growth: 7. Urban growth models with durable housing: an overview J. Brueckner; 8. Urbanization, urban structure and growth G. Duranton; 9. Urban spread beyond the edge of the city F. Goffette-Nagot; Part IV. Cities and Factor Markets: 10. Unemployment in cities Y. Zenou; 11. Rural vs. urban location: the spatial division of labour Hubert Jayet; 12. Cities and the geography of financial centers Thomas Gegrig.