The optimal size of German cities: An efficiency analysis perspective

Stephan Hitzschke

No 202, Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics from Darmstadt University of Technology, Department of Law and Economics

Abstract: This work investigates the interrelation between production efficiency and population size of German cities. The productive efficiency in this context is the scale efficiency, which is a result of positive and negative agglomeration externalities. The investigation is performed in a two-stage process. First, the efficiency in terms of scale efficiency is measured using nonparametric methods. The second stage investigates the relation of scale efficiency and populations size. It turns out that the optimal city size in Germany is about 220,000 inhabitants, which is almost the mean size of all German cities involved. Although there are regional differences, optimal city size remains stable as the mean size.

Keywords: Efficiency analysis; optimal city size; population size; German cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 O47 R12 R15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:darddp:dar_50741

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