The Platform Economy and the Smart City

The Platform Economy and the Smart City
Author: Austin Zwick
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-09-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0228007941
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Over the past decade, cities have come into closer contact and conflict with new technologies. From reactive policymaking in response to platform economy firms to proactive policymaking in an effort to develop into smart cities, urban governance is transforming at an unprecedented speed and scale. Innovative technologies promise a brave new world of convenience and cost effectiveness – powered by cameras that monitor our movements, sensors that line our streets, and algorithms that determine our resource allocation – but at what cost? Exploring the relationship between technology and cities, this book brings together an outstanding group of authors in the field to provide a critical and necessary examination of the disruption that is under way. They look at how cities should understand and regulate novel technologies, what can be learned from proposed and failed smart city projects, and how innovative economies change the structure of cities themselves. Contributors dig deeply into these and similar subjects, contributing their voices to an important dialogue on the future of urban policy and governance. The first collection of its kind, this groundbreaking volume brings together social, economic, and cultural insights to enhance our understanding of the ongoing technological upheaval in cities around the world.

Regulation by Municipal Licensing

Regulation by Municipal Licensing
Author: John Bossons
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 1984-12-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442633948
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Municipal licensing serves a variety of regulatory purposes such as consumer protection and public health and safety. The municipal licensing power is delegated from the provincial government, up to the present, municipalities have been restricted to enumerated, specific powers, and the result has been the growth of a disorganized and unwieldy accumulation of bylaws, many of which conflict or are obsolete. The development of a two-tier system of municipal government, exemplified by Metropolitan Toronto, adds to the complexity of the issues. Basing their analysis upon municipal experience in Ontario, the authors envisage a reorganized system in which provincial and municipal powers will be exercised more rationally to deal with problems at the level at which they tend to occur. Municipal licensing in practice is the topic of a study of the cartage and taxicab industries in a number of Canadian and American cities. Comparisons of industry structure in differing regulatory environments lead to the conclusion that entry controls are not justified by their results.

Municipal Bonding and Taxation

Municipal Bonding and Taxation
Author: Anthony G. White
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-12-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000385329
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This book, first published in 1979, examines the economic lives of municipal governments. Local government provides a great deal of services, all of which must be paid for. The sources of these revenues are analysed here, in three sections: bonding and debt; taxation; and other, miscellaneous sources of revenue. The bibliographic entries stretch back into the nineteenth century, and see a large postwar increase as the financial problems of municipal corporations grew alongside the growth of the suburbs.

Transportation Network Companies and Taxis

Transportation Network Companies and Taxis
Author: Craig A. Leisy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429560141
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Transportation Network Companies and Taxis: The Case of Seattle is a modern economic case history and thorough analysis of the devastating impact of the transportation network company (TNC) industry (Uber and Lyft) on the taxicab industry in Seattle, Washington, beginning in 2014. The events that transpired and lessons learned are applicable to most large cities in North America, Europe and Australia. As the regulator of the taxicab and TNC industries in Seattle during this period, the author offers a unique insider perspective. The book also provides internal operating statistics on the TNC industry, which are available here for the first time. Despite the spectacular growth of the TNC industry, growth rates have steadily declined and may fall to zero by 2019 or 2020, while the taxicab industry appears to have begun a modest recovery. This book offers a thorough explanation of how and why this decline has happened. It explains the taxicab industry, economic deregulation, competitive market failure, market disruption, price elasticity of demand and other concepts. There is also a wealth of data, computations and analysis for the specialized reader. This book considers the past, present and future of the taxicab and TNC industries in Seattle, It is recommended for both the general reader and industry professionals.