Population Growth, Density and the Costs of Providing Public Services: A Review Article

The article Population Growth, Density and the Costs of Providing Public Services by Helen Ladd is reviewed as part of Sociation Today's effort to bring to light important articles which should receive further reading. It seems that the social effects of density are non-linear. At very low levels of population density, a small increase in density lowers the costs of providing services. But at anything more than minimal levels of density, more density means more cost to provide services. The J-curve shows that density is non-linear in its social effects.