Sequential city growth : Theory and evidence from the US

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)



Description :
This paper examines how cities develop and grow in the upper tail of size distribution in a large-scale economy based on a theoretical model under new economic geography framework and the empirical evidence from the US. The results show that cities grow in a sequential pattern. Cities with the best economic conditions are the first to grow fastest until they reach a critical size, then their growth rates slow down and the smaller cities farther down in the urban hierarchy become the fastest-growing ones in sequence. This paper also reveals 3 related features of urban system : 1), The city size distribution evolves from low-level balanced to primate and finally high-level balanced pattern in an inverted U-shaped path; 2), There exist persistent discontinuities, or gaps, between city size classes; 3), City size in the upper tail exhibits conditional convergence characteristics.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Journal of geographical sciences. Acta geographica sinica, issn : 1009-637X, 2014, vol. 24, n°. 6, p. 1161-1174, nombre de pages : 14, Références bibliographiques : 26 ref.

Date :
2014

Editeur :
Pays édition : Chine