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Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.
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Emily Hamilton

I was first introduced to Jane Jacobs while working as an intern in the Planning Department of my hometown in Colorado. Her work enlightened me to the power of market forces to benefit all city dwellers without government intervention. Since then, I have become fascinated by the urban emergent order that creates our cities.

I graduated with a Masters in economics from George Mason University in 2010 after finishing my undergraduate degree at Goucher College in 2008. While at GMU, I worked as a Research Associate at the university’s Mercatus Center. After a brief time working elsewhere, I returned to the Mercatus Center to write for Neighborhood Effects about state and local policy issues.

Contact me at emilybwashington@gmail.com

Emily Hamilton – Market Urbanism

Liberalizing Cities From The Ground Up

Houston as an Affordability Model
In December, I was asked to testify at a House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance hearing on government barriers to housing construction and affordability. I provided examples of reforms to land regulations that have facilitated increased housing supply, particularly relatively low-cost types of housing, including multifamily, small-lot single-family, and accessory dwelling units. Following the hearing, […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: January 16, 2024, 3:10 am
Welcome Michael Nahas
Market Urbanism is proud to welcome Michael Nahas as a new writer who will bring an Austin perspective to the blog. Michael’s Twitter handle is @MichaelDNahas, and he also blogs at City Econ. Here’s a short interview we did over email. Emily: How did you become interested in cities? Michael: A coincidence back in 2018 […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: February 24, 2023, 1:02 am
Protecting Housing Affordability by Protecting the Right to Build Housing
Legislators in Colorado and Tennessee have introduced bills modeled on Arizona’s Private Property Rights Protection Act, a law that requires municipal governments to compensate landowners when new land use regulations make land less valuable. Both states already have areas with housing affordability problems due in part to land use regulations that are already on the […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: April 1, 2022, 2:53 pm
Opening Arlington up to Housing
Arlington County policymakers have issued a call for ideas on improving housing availability and affordability. If you’d like to submit your own ideas, you can do so here through the rest of the day. The ideas that I submitted are below. Arlington County is a national model for transit-oriented development. Permitting dense, multifamily housing to […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: November 13, 2020, 1:38 pm
What’s a stickplex?
  A stickplex is a dense residential structure or group of structures built with inexpensive materials and techniques, most commonly wood. Stickplexes use 2,500 square feet of land per unit or less. Stickplexes have per-square-foot construction costs roughly in line with detached houses due to avoidance of costly features like elevators and more expensive construction […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: October 1, 2020, 11:59 pm
The Limits of the Singapore Housing Model
In 2015, urban studies professor Anne Haila published a book on Singapore’s land ownership and housing system called Urban Land Rent: Singapore as a Property State. The Singapore housing model has recently been getting some attention for its widespread homeownership and affordability relative to high-cost coastal cities in the United States. Both Haila and, recently, […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: August 5, 2020, 5:22 pm
Homeownership and the Warren Housing Bill
Elizabeth Warren’s housing bill has received a lot of love from those who favor of land use liberalization. Like Cory Booker’s housing bill, the Warren bill would seek to encourage state and local land use reform using federal grants as an incentive. Warren’s bill would significantly increase funding for the Housing Trust Fund and provide […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: April 15, 2019, 12:04 am
Three Policies for Making Driverless Cars Work for Cities
Some urbanists have become skeptical about the future of autonomous vehicles even as unstaffed, autonomous taxis are now serving customers in Phoenix and Japan. Others worry that AVs, if they are ever deployed widely, will make cities worse. Angie Schmitt posits that allowing AVs in cities without implementing deliberate pro-urban policies first will exacerbate the […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: November 6, 2018, 5:20 pm
Three Lessons from Nashville’s Building Boom
Nashville has enjoyed some of the country’s fastest job growth for several years as healthcare and tech startups have made the city home. Unsurprisingly, this economic boom has coincided with a large increase in population, greater demand for real estate, and rising house prices. But Nashville’s policy environment has moderated price increases relative to what […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: April 27, 2018, 6:46 pm
United against dynamism
The battle lines being drawn for the SB 827 debate is perhaps the clearest example ever of the strange bedfellows that align on land use politics. Tenant rights activists stand in opposition to preemption of local land-use regulations with landlords and owners of suburban single family homes. In The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel develops a dynamist-stasist lens […]
Author: Emily Hamilton
Posted: March 29, 2018, 11:26 pm
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