Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Quote of the Day

Somebody Else’s Problem (SEP):
"An SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem.... The brain just edits it out, it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won't see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye. [...] it relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain."
(Douglas Adams in his novel Life, the Universe and Everything)

The same is true for scientific discoveries.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Urban Picture

NY by Jeff Weston




Manhattan 1964, by Evelyn Hofer (via @BeschlossDC)


Sunday, July 28, 2013

China's policies for the aging population

The Oxford Chinese Economy Programme (OXCEP) promoted a series of workshops on June 2013. Here is the presentation by Prof. Zhao Yaohui (China Center for Economic Research at Peking University) on Chinese policies for the aging population.



Related Link:
  • Policies against poverty (Prof. Li Shi - Director of the China Institute for the Study of Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University)

Thursday, July 25, 2013

IPUMS-International and Brazilian census microdata

Imagine what research questions you could answer if you had in your personal computer the census microdata of several countries around the world. I am talking about over 211 census from over 68 countries  - for some countries, every census round since 1960 is available. This is made possible thanks to the IPUMS-International project. 

They do this huge effort "to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system"

By the way, Robert McCaa alerted me that the 2010 sample of the census of Brazil is now available for download at IPUMS website. Enjoy it !

Monday, July 22, 2013

The Most-Cited Articles from Urban Studies











  1. Social Cohesion, Social Capital and the Neighbourhood
  2. Industrial Clusters: Complexes, Agglomeration and/or Social Networks?
  3. Clusters from the Inside and Out: Local Dynamics and Global Linkages
  4. The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: What Has the Evidence Shown?
  5. Is the Journey to Work Explained by Urban Structure?
  6. Governance Innovation and the Citizen: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State
  7. Social Polarisation in Global Cities: Theory and Evidence
  8. Unravelling the Process of 'Partnership' in Urban Regeneration Policy
  9. Creative Cities and Economic Development
  10. Spatial Mismatch or Automobile Mismatch? An Examination of Race, Residence and Commuting in US Metropolitan Areas
  11. ...

Saturday, July 13, 2013

13th WCTR + Commute Time in Brazil




Dear readers, next week I'll be in Rio for the 13th WCTR. I'm presenting a working paper Tim Schwanen and I have recently published. In this study we explore 18 years of commute time trends in Brazil. I was planning a dedicated post to talk about this study but I've been quite busy these days. 


So here it is. You may download it here:



[Portuguese version]






ps. It would be great to meet some of you in case there is anyone out there that's also attending the conference. If there is anyone out there, just leave a comment of drop me an email.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Urban Picture

Around the world 30 pictures architect

La vuelta al mundo de un aquitecto en 30 fotografias (via Drunkeynesian)

México DF


Norilsk (Russia)


Dubai


Barcelona


Huaxi (China)


Brasília (Brazil)

European shipping routes between 1750 and 1800

James Cheshire (UCL) have used R to create this incredible map showing some European shipping routes between 1750 and 1850. What struck me most is the existence of a remarkable dataset like this, containing digitised information from the log books of ships.


Click on the  image to enlarge it

[Image Credit: James Cheshire]


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Returns to College Education

A nice piece by Catherine Rampell on The Return on College Around the World (ht Raquel Guimaraes). You may download the OECD report here: Education at a Glance 2013.

[Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. via Economix]

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Off-topic: Internet monitoring



Image credit: someone's (can't remember who) facebook page

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Quote of the day


[Image Credit: pak9 and @over]

Full quote: "What is a city, but the people; true the people are the city"