What price planning? Reimagining planning as "market maker". (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lord, Alex; O'Brien, Philip
• Is Part Of: Planning theory & practice. Volume 18:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 217
• Page End: 232
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Urban planning -- environmental planning -- game theory -- behavioural economics -- development process; City planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; 307.1205
• DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2017.1286369
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1464-9357

Abstract

Abstract: Planning has been widely vilified for the role it plays in disrupting the development process, hindering economic growth and creating the conditions for undersupply in housing markets, characterised by unaffordability. In this paper we hope to show that the analyses that support this view of planning are incomplete because of the theoretical limitations of the neoclassical tradition from which they emerge. By way of alternative we posit an account of planning that draws upon game theory and behavioural economics to explore those aspects of the activity that serve to animate the development process. This interpretation of planning as a "market maker" is explored through empirical case study research from three continental European contexts where planning is charged with playing an economically active role to control liquidity.