Does Brasilia work?

Tyler Cowan on Brasilia ... Does Brasilia work? : ""

There are a few quick lessons: 1. Sorry Jane Jacobs fans, planned cities do sometimes work. Take a look at postwar Germany too. 2. “Planned” cities are often less formally planned in their entirety than you think, and that is true for the greater Brasilia area. Brasilia is a mix of planned and unplanned elements, and it’s the mix which (mostly) works. We should not demonize either the “planned” or “unplanned” aspects of that blend per se. 3. Even when matters are quite screwed up from the policy or optimality side, mobility enforces an equality of average rates of return. This is one of the most neglected insights of economics.