The Size Distribution of Cities: Evidence from the Lab

Rocco Rante (), Federico Trionfetti and Priyam Verma ()
Additional contact information
Rocco Rante: The Louvre Museum, https://mafoub.com/
Priyam Verma: Aix-Marseille Univ., CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France

No 2413, AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France

Abstract: In this paper, we bring fresh evidence on the city size distribution from a ‘lab’ represented by the region of Bukhara observed in the 9th CE. At that time this region was homogeneous in all respects (technology, amenities, climate, culture, language, religion, etc.) and yet cities had different sizes. We rationalize the city size distribution of this economy in a simple general equilibrium spatial model of which we estimate the parameters using the method of moments. The estimated model predicts very well the 9th century city size distribution. Spatial centrality is the major determinant of city size. The silk road contributes to explain what centrality cannot. We find little evidence of persistence of the urban structure when comparing the 9th and the 21st century. We find instead that centroid of the region has moved towards the economic core of the Uzbek economy.

Keywords: Spatial Model; Archaeological Data; Centrality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 R12 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.amse-aixmarseille.fr/sites/default/fil ... /wp_2024_-_nr_13.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Size Distribution of Cities: Evidence from the Lab (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2413

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in AMSE Working Papers from Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France AMU-AMSE - 5-9 Boulevard Maurice Bourdet, CS 50498 - 13205 Marseille Cedex 1. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Gregory Cornu ().