I guess the central question is the link between all those important questions and cities
for instance, concerning labor I would recommend zenou's book "urban labor economics".
It's not great news that fields interact with each other
How do we exactly define the field of urban economics that isn't contained in another field (labor, law and econ, development, health)?
I've wondered this for a while.
There are a few topics that are studied by urban economists but not usually other economists. For example, real estate/housing market, transportation, industrial agglomeration, etc. Other economists study these as well, but not too often.
For most other sub-topics in urban economics, such as international trade, regional labor market, they are seriously correlated w/ other subfields of economics. Of course you can claim that Krugman, or Glaeser, or Zenou are urban economists, but they are more than this.
How do we exactly define the field of urban economics that isn't contained in another field (labor, law and econ, development, health)?
I've wondered this for a while.
you must be a grad student. Seriously, yes, JUE is lower than JPubE or Rand, but on par or above JEEM or JHE for instance. And it definitely counts as a top field.
Urban is a very small field and it isn't anyone's first choice for good papers. At a top-100 it would count as a second-tier field journal (1st tier being JPubE.)
there are very few papers in JET that cannot be published in Guatemala Journal of Theoretical Economics. Hence, even though JET is top field, it's not a top journal.
Like 83f1 mentions there are virtually no topics in urban economics that cannot also plausibly be studied in e.g. public economics, labor economics, and health economics. Hence, even though Urban Economics is top field, it's not a top journal.
Those of you who have papers there can no-good me all you want but that won't change the fact that Urban is a *very* small field and it isn't *anyone's* first choice for good papers. At a top-100 it would count as a second-tier field journal (1st tier being JPubE.)
I am NOT doing urban and never published in this journal, but to me, the fields in economics correspond to the jel categories.
For those I know:
C Mathematical and Quantitative Methods -> JET
E Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics -> JME
F International Economics -> JIE
G Financial Economics -> JoF
H Public Economics -> JPubE
I Health, Education, and Welfare -> JHE
J Labor and Demographic Economics -> JLE
K Law and Economics ->JLE
L Industrial Organization -> Rand
O Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth -> JDE
Q Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics -> JEEM
R Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics -> JUE
and all those journals are "top field", and considered as such, when we hire (even tough some fields are well known to be more competitive than others)
Those of you who have papers there can no-good me all you want but that won't change the fact that Urban is a *very* small field and it isn't *anyone's* first choice for good papers. At a top-100 it would count as a second-tier field journal (1st tier being JPubE.)
I hope we agree that any # JF/RFS, JMEs/AEJs or JETs are not equivalent to a similar # of JUEs or JLEs in any serious department.
Look, if your paper in urban is good enough but not that general, the first outlet you try is JPubE. Only after that you go to Urban (if after the first rejection you still believe in the paper you may even send it to AEJ Pol. first). That's what we expect our junior people to do anyway.