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systems of cities
From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008
Edited by
Steven
N.
Durlauf
and
Lawrence
E.
Blume
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Abstract
Research on systems of cities examines five issues. How do cities form and what are the agglomeration benefits driving city formation and sizes? Second, in a hierarchy of cities, what is the role of big versus small cities? Third, how does a system of cities evolve under economic and population growth; and how does urban growth based on localized knowledge spillovers potentially define national economic growth? Fourth, how do governance, institutions, and public policy affect city formation and sizes? Finally where do cities locate and what the effects of history, climate and natural resource location?
Keywords
agglomeration; cluster analysis; congestion; endogenous growth models; geography; Gibrat's Law; Henry George Theorem; human capital; industry concentration; information spillovers; innovation; knowledge externality; monopolistic competition; Nash equilibrium; new economic geography; protection; quality-ladder model; systems of cities; transport costs; urban agglomeration; urban growth; urban specialization; Zipf's Law; zoning regulation
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See Also
I thank Yannis Ioannides and Will Strange for helpful comments on the first draft.
How to cite this article
Henderson, J. Vernon. "systems of cities." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 18 May 2013 <http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_S000446> doi:10.1057/9780230226203.1663
