Published Research
The Mansueto Institute faculty, affiliated faculty, and fellows publish research in leading academic journals that is helping to define the field of urban science. This includes new methods for statistical analysis of cities, patterns in urban growth and development, and findings about socioeconomics, built environment, sustainability, and more.
2022
Dan O’Brien and Alex Ciomek. Whence the Action? The Persistence and Aggravation of Violent Crime at Addresses, Streets, and Neighborhoods. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. July 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224278221112839.
Christopher R Esposito. Cycles of Regional Innovative Growth. Journal of Economic Geography. 2022;, lbac020. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbac020.
José Lobo, Todd Whitelaw, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Polly Wiessner, Michael E Smith, and Scott Ortman. Scaling of Hunter-Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality. Current Anthropology. March 2022. https://doi.org/10.1086/719234.
Romeo-Aznar, V., Picinini Freitas, L., Gonçalves Cruz, O., King, A., Pascual, M. Fine-scale heterogeneity in population density predicts wave dynamics in dengue epidemics. Nature Communications 13, 996 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28231-w.
Taajamaa V, Joensuu M, Karanian B, Bettencourt L. Seven Steps to Strategic SDG Sensemaking for Cities. Administrative Sciences. 2022; 12(1):33. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12010033.
2021
Lobo, J., Alberti, M., Allen-Dumas, M. et al. A Convergence Research Perspective on Graduate Education for Sustainable Urban Systems Science. NPJ Urban Sustainability 1, 39 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00044-8.
Bettencourt LMA. New Empirically Driven Approaches to Inclusive Human Development in Cities. In: Kumar, A., & Meshram, D.S. (Eds.). (2021). Sustainable Development Goals and Indian Cities: Inclusion, Diversity and Citizen Rights (1st ed.). Routledge India. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003248781
Bettencourt LMA. Introduction to Urban Science: Evidence and Theory of Cities as Complex Systems. (2021) MIT Press.
Jared N Schachner, Racial Stratification and School Segregation in the Suburbs: Evidence from Los Angeles County, Social Forces, 2021;, soab128, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab128
Stier, A.J., Berman, M.G. & Bettencourt, L.M.A. Early Pandemic COVID-19 Case Growth Rates Increase with City Size. npj Urban Sustain 1, 31 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00030-0
Stier, A., Berman, M., Bettencourt, L.. et al. Evidence and theory for lower rates of depression in larger US urban areas. PNAS (2021). https://www.pnas.org/content/118/31/e2022472118
Tian, A., Zünd, D., Bettencourt, L.. Estimating Rooftop Solar Potential in Urban Environments: A Generalized Approach and Assessment of the Galápagos Islands. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities 3, 49 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2021.632109
Schertz, K.E., Saxon, J., Cardenas-Iniguez, C. et al. Neighborhood Street Activity and Greenspace Usage Uniquely Contribute to Predicting Crime. npj Urban Sustain 1, 19 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-020-00005-7
Vaidehi Tandel, Sahil Gandhi, Shaonlee Patranabis, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Anup Malani. Infrastructure, Enforcement, and COVID-19 in Mumbai Slums: A First Look. Journal of Regional Science. 10 July 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12552.
Schachner, Jared N. 2021. Parental Depression and Contextual Selection: The Case of School Choice. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 62(2): 202-221. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00221465211001058
Sahasranaman A, Bettencourt LM. Economic Geography and the Scaling of Urban and Regional Income in India. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. 2021;48(3):540-554. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808319879463
Schachner, Jared N. 2021. Neighborhood Economic Change in an Era of Metropolitan Divergence. Urban Affairs Review OnlineFirst. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10780874211016940
Anand Sahasranaman, Luís M.A. Bettencourt, Life Between the City and the Village: Scaling Analysis of Service Access in Indian Urban Slums, World Development, Volume 142, 2021, 105435, ISSN 0305-750X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105435.
Elmqvist, T., Andersson, E., McPhearson, T. et al. Urbanization in and for the Anthropocene. npj Urban Sustain 1, 6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00018-w
Brandtner C, Bettencourt LMA, Berman MG, Stier AJ (2021) Creatures of the State? Metropolitan Counties Compensated for State Inaction in Initial U.S. Response to COVID-19 Pandemic. PLoS ONE 16(2): e0246249. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246249
2020
Marwell, N.P., Marantz, E.A., & Baldassarri D. (2020). The Microrelations of Urban Governance: Dynamics of Patronage and Partnership. American Journal of Sociology 125(6), 1559-1601. https://doi.org/10.1086/709250
Press, D.J., Aschebrook-Kilfoy, B., Lauderdale, D…Bettencourt LMA et al. ChicagO Multiethnic Prevention and Surveillance Study (COMPASS): Increased Response Rates Among African American Residents in Low Socioeconomic Status Neighborhoods. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 8, 186–198 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00770-2
Tian Amy, Zünd Daniel, Bettencourt Luís M. A. Estimating Rooftop Solar Potential in Urban Environments: A Generalized Approach and Assessment of the Galápagos Islands. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 22 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2021.632109.
Bettencourt, L.M.A., Zünd, D. Demography and the Emergence of Universal patterns in Urban Systems. Nat Commun 11, 4584 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18205-1
Bettencourt, Luís M. A. (2020) Urban Growth and the Emergent Statistics of Cities. Science Advances Vol. 6. no. 34, eaat8812. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/34/eaat8812.
Lobo J…Bettencourt LMA. Urban Science: Integrated Theory from the First Cities to Sustainable Metropolises. Report submitted to the NSF on the Present State and Future of Urban Science, 2020. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3526940.
Zünd D., Bettencourt L.M.A. (2021) Street View Imaging for Automated Assessments of Urban Infrastructure and Services. In: Shi W., Goodchild M.F., Batty M., Kwan MP., Zhang A. (eds) Urban Informatics. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8983-6_4
Soman S, Beukes A, Nederhood C, Marchio N, Bettencourt LMA. Worldwide Detection of Informal Settlements via Topological Analysis of Crowdsourced Digital Maps. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 2020; 9(11):685. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9110685
David J. Press, Brandon Pierce, Diane S. Lauderdale, Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy, Scarlett Lin Gomez, Donald Hedeker, Nathaniel E. Wright, Richard J. Fantus, Luís Bettencourt, Habibul Ahsan, Scott Eggener. Tobacco and Marijuana Use and Their Association with Serum Prostate-specific Antigen Levels among African American Men in Chicago. Preventive Medicine Reports,Volume 20, 2020, 101174, ISSN 2211-3355, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101174.
Lobo J, Bettencourt LMA, Smith ME. Settlement Scaling theory: Bridging the Study of Ancient and Contemporary Urban Systems. Volume: 57 issue: 4, page(s): 731-747, October 17, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019873796
Rudolf Cesaretti, José Lobo, Luis M. A. Bettencourt & Michael E. Smith (2020) Increasing Returns to Scale in the Towns of Early Tudor England. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History. 53:3, 147-165, https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2020.1722775.
Bettencourt, Luis and Yang, Vicky Chuqiao and Lobo, Jose and Kempes, Chris and Rybski, Diego and Hamilton, Marcus, The Interpretation of Urban Scaling Analysis in Time (September 25, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 12. This paper has been published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2019.0846 Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3459540 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3459540
Scott G. Ortman, Michael E. Smith, José Lobo, and Luís M. A. Bettencourt. Why Archaeology Is Necessary for a Theory of Urbanization. Journal of Urban Archaeology 2020 1:, 151-167. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.120914.
2019
Choe K.W., Jenifer J., Rozek C., Berman M., & Beilock S. (2019) Calculated Avoidance: Math Anxiety Predicts Math Avoidance in Effort-Based Decision Making. Science Advances Vo. 5, no. 11, eaay1062. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/11/eaay1062
Bettencourt, Luis and Lobo, Jose, Quantitative Methods for the Comparative Analysis of Cities in History (May 27, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 9. This paper has been published in Frontiers in Digital Humanities: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2019.00017/full. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3427343 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3427343
Zünd, Daniel and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Growth and Urban Development in Prefecture-Level China (December 14, 2018). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 1. This paper has been published in PLoS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0221017. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3302756 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3302756
Bettencourt LMA. Towards a Statistical Mechanics of Cities (Vers Une Mécanique Statistique des Villes). Comptes Rendus Physique. Volume 20, Issue 4, May–June 2019, Pages 308-318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2019.05.007.
Bettencourt, LMA. Designing for Complexity: The Challenge to Spatial Design from Sustainable Human Development in Cities (March 26, 2019). Technology|Architecture + Design. 3:1, 24-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/24751448.2019.1571793
Sahasranaman, Anand and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Urban Geography and Scaling of Contemporary Indian Cities (September 23, 2018). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 4. This paper has been published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2018.0758 Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3362570 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3362570.
de Haan F.J., Quiroga Ferri D., Walsh S.J., Bettencourt L.M.A. (2019) Scales and Transformative Change: Transitions in the Galapagos. In: Kvan T., Karakiewicz J. (eds) Urban Galapagos. Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99534-2_4
Bettencourt, Luís M. A., Critical Paths to Sustainability: The Research Challange from Island Urban Systems. n Kvan, T., Karakiewicz, J. (eds.), Urban Galapagos, Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99534-2_10
Batty, M., Bettencourt, Luís M. A., Kirley, M., Understanding Coupled Urban-Natural Dynamics as the Key to Sustainability: The Example of the Galapagos. In Kvan, T., Karakiewicz, J. (eds.), Urban Galapagos, Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands. https://doi.org/1007/978-3-319-99534-2_3
Bettencourt LMA. (2019) Complex Systems Modeling of Urban Development: Understanding the Determinants of Health and Growth Across Scales. In: Nieuwenhuijsen M., Khreis H. (eds) Integrating Human Health into Urban and Transport Planning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74983-9_10
2018
Brelsford, C., Martin, T., Hand, J., Bettencourt, Luís M. A., Toward Cities Without Slums: Topology and the Spatial Evolution of Neighborhoods (August 29, 2018). Science Advances. Vol. 4, no. 8, eaar4644. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar4644.
Shutters ST, Lobo J, Muneepeerakul R, Strumsky D, Mellander C, Brachert M, Farinha T, Bettencourt LMA. Urban Occupational Structures as Information Networks: The Effect on Network Density of Increasing Number of Occupations. PLOS. Published: May 7, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196915.
Urban Innovations Working Paper Series
Hosted on SSRN, the Mansueto Institute’s working paper series is a forum to share knowledge, spur collaboration, and publicize cutting-edge urban science research. This series disseminates early-stage and under peer review research in pursuit of generating the best knowledge and practices around urban development. Papers come from scholars across the University of Chicago and beyond, and touch upon a range of interdisciplinary subjects including housing scholarship, urban architecture and design, neighborhoods and human development, sustainable cities, and data and technological innovation. View the full series and subscribe on SSRN.
Preprints
2023
Stier, Andrew and Sajjadi, Sina and Karimi, Fariba and Bettencourt, Luis and Berman, Marc G. City Population, Majority Group Size, and Residential Segregation Drive Implicit Racial Biases in U.S. Cities (January 27, 2023). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 36. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4342718.
Sheth, Suraj and Bettencourt, Luis, The Community Human Development Index as a Precision Vulnerability Metric and Risk Indicator (January 18, 2023). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 35. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4328885.
Sheth, Suraj and Bettencourt, Luis, Community Human Development in US Counties: Analysis of the Divergence in Local Life Expectancies Over Time (January 18, 2023). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 34. Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4328853.
2022
Stier, Andrew and Sajjadi, Sina and Bettencourt, Luis and Karimi, Fariba and Berman, Marc G, Effects of Racial Segregation on Economic Productivity in U.S. Cities (December 6, 2022). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 33. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4295426.
Gonzalez, Ana and Brandtner Christof, Green against the odds: Overcoming institutional barriers to sustainability in cities with pragmatic and progressive resource needs (November 18, 2022). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 32. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4284821.
Brandtner, Christof and Ashur, Parham and Srinivasa Desikan, Bhargav. Dynamic persistence of institutions: Modeling the endurance of public housing after Red Vienna, 1870–2009 (November 15, 2022). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 31. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4277817.
Kemp, Jordan and Bettencourt, Luis, The Bayesian Origins of Growth Rates in Stochastic Environments (September 22, 2022). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 30. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4227165.
Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Why the Internet Must Become More Like a City (July 3, 2022). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 29, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4166118.
2021
Sheth, Suraj and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Human Development in US Cities and Neighborhoods (November 11, 2021). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 28, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3961750
Tandel, Vaidehi and Gandhi, Sahil and Patranabis, Shaonlee and Bettencourt, Luis and Malani, Anup, Infrastructure, enforcement and COVID-19 in Mumbai slums: A first look (April 30, 2021). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 27, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3837478
Koschinsky, Julia and Marwell, Nicole and Mansour, Raed, Does Health Service Funding Go Where the Need Is? A Prototype Spatial Access Analysis for New Urban Contracts Data (April 22, 2021). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3832293
Koschinsky, Julia and Marwell, Nicole and Mansour, Raed, A Blueprint for Diagnosing the Readiness of Human Service Contracts Data for Spatial Access Analysis (April 22, 2021). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 25, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3832279
2020
Bettencourt, Luis and Soman, Satej, Systems Architecture for Real Time Epidemiological Prediction and Control (December 14, 2020). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 24, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3748704
Soman, Satej and Beukes, Anni and Nederhood, Cooper and Marchio, Nicholas and Bettencourt, Luis, Worldwide Detection of Informal Settlements via Topological Analysis of Crowdsourced Digital Maps (September 27, 2020). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3701930 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3701930
2019
Saxon, James, Empirical Measures of Park Use in American Cities, and the Demographic Biases of Spatial Models (December 12, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 17. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3502949
Bettencourt, Luis and Zünd, Daniel, Demography, Symmetry and the Emergence of Universal Patterns in Urban Systems (October 15, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 15. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3470821 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3470821
Lobo, Jose and Alberti, Marina and Allen-Dumas, Melissa and Bettencourt, Luis and Beukes, Anni and Neal, Zachary P. and Pfeiffer, Deirdre and Shutters, Shade T. and Smith, Michael E. and Stokes, Eleanor C. and Strumsky, Deborah and Wu, Jingle, Graduate Education for a New Sustainable Urban Systems Science: Designing a New PhD Curriculum Integrating Sustainability Science and Urban Science (October 1, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 14. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3466322 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3466322
Saxon, James, The Local Structures of Human Mobility in Chicago (October 9, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 13. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3467101
Bettencourt, Luis and Sahasranaman, Anand, Life Between the City and the Village: Comparative Analysis of Service Access in Indian Urban Slums (September 2, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 11. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3448171 This paper has been published in World Development: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105435
Romero Lankao, Patricia and Wilson, Alana and Sperling, Joshua and Miller, Clark and Zimny-Schmitt, Daniel and Bettencourt, Luis and Wood, Eric and Young, Stanley and Muratori, Matteo and Arent, Doug and O’Malley, Mark and Sovacool, Benjamin K. and Brown, Marilyn A. and Southworth, Frank and Bazilian, Morgan and Gearhart, Chris and Beukes, Anni and Zünd, Daniel, Urban Electrification: Knowledge Pathway Toward an Integrated Research and Development Agenda (August 20, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 10. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3440283 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3440283
Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Complex Networks and Fundamental Urban Processes (June 11, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 8. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3418612 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3418612
Lobo, Jose and Whitelaw, Todd and Bettencourt, Luis and Wiessner, Polly and Smith, Michael E. and Ortman, Scott, Scaling of Hunter Gatherer Camp Size and Human Sociality (May 26, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 7. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3399729
Lobo, Jose and Bettencourt, Luis and Smith, Michael E. and Ortman, Scott, Settlement Scaling Theory: Bridging the Study of Ancient and Contemporary Urban Systems (May 26, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 6. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3427336 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3427336
Bettencourt, Luis, Towards a Statistical Mechanics of Cities (April 9, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 5. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3427349 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3427349
Sahasranaman, Anand and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Economic Geography and the Scaling of Urban and Regional Income in India (March 27, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 3. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3362578 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3362578
Zünd, Daniel and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Streetview Imaging for Automated Assessments of Urban Infrastructure and Services (March 25, 2019). Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation Research Paper No. 2. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3362580 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3362580
Pre-Prints
Working papers, pre-published articles, white papers, and other pre-published work from scholars at the Mansueto Institute.
2021
Kemp, Jordan T. and Bettencourt, Luís M.A., Statistical Dynamics of Wealth Inequality in Stochastic Models of Growth (December 9, 2021). Cornell University arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2112.05217
Andrew J. Stier, Marc G. Berman, Luis M. A. Bettencourt. COVID-19 attack rate increases with city size (March 23 2020). Cornell University arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2003.10376.
Anand Sahasranaman, Luís M. A. Bettencourt. Life Between the City and the Village: Comparative Analysis of Service Access in Indian Urban Slums (September 10 2019). Cornell University arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1909.05728.