Anthony Downs (; born November 21, 1930; died October 2, 2021) is an American economist specializing in public policy and public administration. He has been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., since 1977.Before 1977, Downs served for 18 years a member and then Chairman of Real Estate Research Corporation, a nationwide consultancy advising private and public decision-makers on real estate investment, housing policies, and urban affairs. He also served as a Senior Analyst at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the University of Chicago. == Education == Downs received...

Braess's paradox is the observation that adding one or more roads to a road network can slow down overall traffic flow through it. The paradox was postulated in 1968 by German mathematician Dietrich Braess. The paradox may have analogies in electrical power grids and biological systems. It has been suggested that in theory, the improvement of a malfunctioning network could be accomplished by removing certain parts of it. The paradox has been used to explain instances of improved traffic flow when existing major roads are closed. == Discovery and definition == Dietrich Braess, a mathematician at...