In his book, Alain Bertaud argues that integrating urban economics into urban planning can enhance city productivity and citizen welfare. While traditional urban planning relies on qualitative goals like sustainability and livability, often without measurable outcomes, urban economics offers a quantitative, theory-based approach. Bertaud, drawing on five decades of experience in forty cities, emphasizes that market mechanisms are crucial for efficient urban development, using examples from pre-reform China and Russia to illustrate the failures of market-absent systems. He connects urban productivity to labor market size, highlights the complementary roles of infrastructure and market design, and critiques regulatory attempts to redesign cities rather than addressing specific negative externalities. Bertaud advocates for collaboration between urban planners and economists to improve city management.