Population Studies and Training Center

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Matthew Turner

Professor of Economics
matthew_turner@brown.edu
Research Profile
Research Interests Cities, Climate change, Transportation infrastructure, Urbanization
Affiliated Departments Department of Economics

Biography

Matthew Turner joined the PSTC and Brown University in 2014. He is broadly interested in environmental and urban economics and his research focuses on the economics of land use and transportation.

Turner's current projects investigate the relationship between public transit and the growth of cities, how 'smart growth' development affects individual driving behavior, how transportation infrastructure is affecting the evolution of Chinese cities, and how urban land use is evolving in the United States. Recently completed projects investigate the welfare implications of residential land use regulation, the cost of traffic congestion, the effects of infrastructure on patterns of trade, urban growth, and the total amount of driving in a city.

Turner's research appears in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, and Econometrica and is regularly featured in the popular press.

Research

Recent Projects

  • Urban Form and Driving
  • Subways and urban growth
  • The evolution of land use in the United States

Publications

Turner, Matthew A., Andrew Haughwout, and Wilbert Van Der Klaauw. "Land use regulation and welfare." Econometrica 82.4 (2014): 1341-1403.

Duranton, Gilles, Peter M. Morrow, and Matthew A. Turner. "Roads and Trade: Evidence from the US." Review of Economic Studies 81.2 (2014): 681-724.

Duranton, Gilles, and Matthew A. Turner. "Urban growth and transportation." Review of Economic Studies 79.4 (2012): 1407-1440.

Duranton, Gilles, and Matthew A. Turner. "The fundamental law of road congestion: Evidence from US cities." American Economic Review 101.6 (2011): 2616-52.

Recent News

Greater Greater Washington

Why Traffic Never Gets Better

In 1962, Anthony Downs wrote that there is a Fundamental Law of Highway Congestion: no matter how much road is built, the highway will end up congested again. In decades since then, the United States has undergone a massive experiment in expanding most major roads, leading to an additional conclusion: there is a Fundamental Law of Traffic Congestion impacting both highways and major roads.
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