ABSTRACT

Introduction Financial and economic crises affect all segments of society, but the extent to which crises affect some regions more than others has remained largely unexplored. It is therefore worth carrying out some research into the effect of such crises on certain areas, notably cities, which increasingly accommodate much of the world’s population. For the purpose of evaluating the origins of crises and their consequences for cities, statistical information should be available at the municipality level. This level of detail would allow for the comparison between the pre-and post-crises situations, and also allow a contrast to be made between urban and rural environments. Unfortunately, analyses are often only carried out at the macroeconomic level. The objective of this chapter is to give a general overview of the origins and consequences of economic crises. First, the role of economic indicators in detecting the inception of recessions is emphasised and the advantages and disadvantages of macroeconomic indicators are discussed. In order to assess the impacts of crises on cities, a system of economic indicators at a local level should provide more information than the typical information found at country level or regional level. A section is then devoted to describing the origins and causes of the current economic crisis from a broad perspective and then particular attention is paid to Southern Europe. In the final section, the effects of the economic crisis are discussed, namely the control of public debt, social consequences, and, in particular, the impacts on the labour market and the welfare state. The chapter outlines some brief conclusions, which point to the idea that cities may suffer more than rural areas from the consequences of a crisis in the short term and in the long term.