The Techniques of Urban Economic Analysis (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Techniques of Urban Economic Analysis The theory gained impetus during the decade of the thirties through the development of base-service ratios and other techniques for applying the theory to actual urban economics. These techniques paved the way for a large number of base studies in vari ous communities. Consequently the theory appeared to be established both as theory of urban growth and the source of valuable planning techniques. The acceptance of some theory of urban growth is understandable because planners, administrators and others have a strong need for an explanation of urban growth. Such a theory or explanation is needed by planners and administrators to understand and assimilate the phenomena of urban change that constantly surrounds them. They need a theory to point the way to adequate analysis and cataloguing of economic forces in their communities. In addition the planner and the administrator need a theory. That has predictive or forecasting power. The concept of a plan for the future necessarily im plies the existence oi a prediction on which the plan was founded. Predictions made without a theoretical basis merely rely on an intuition that may or may not be adequate.