Cities and the Economic Development of Nations: An Essay on Jane Jacobs' Contribution to Economic Theory */Les Villes Et Le Developpement Economique des Nations. Un Presentation Sur Le Contribution de Jane Jacobs a la Theorie Economique * (DIALOGUE‪)‬

Despite her popularity among urban planning and sociology scholars, urban theorist Jane Jacobs' economic writings, with the exception of one basic insight, have failed to attract widespread attention. This neglect is unfortunate, because in spire of some factual errors and dubious analytical interpretations, Jacobs' lack of respect for traditional academic boundaries gave her the freedom to formulate several highly original insights and hypotheses. After a brief overview of Jacobs' life and work, we summarize her key economic ideas and discuss in more detail the current popularity and shortcomings of 'Jacobs externalities' (or the diffusion of know-how across different lines of work in the context of a diversified urban economy) among academic economists. We suggest that some of her ideas, such as a scenario according to which agriculture might have been developed in cities rather than the countryside and what could be termed her dynamic structural theory of technical change, deserve more attention and scrutiny despite the fact that they might not be amenable to 'rigorous' statistical testing.