Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance?

Roberto Ganau and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

No 2106, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: This paper uses a novel, globally-harmonised city-level dataset —with cities defined at the Functional Urban Area (FUA) level— to revisit the link between urban concentration and country-level economic dynamics. The empirical analysis, involving 108 low- and high-income countries, examines how differences in urban concentration impinge on changes in employment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, and labour productivity at country level over the period 2000-2016. The results indicate that urban concentration reduces employment growth but increases GDP per capita and labour productivity growth. The returns of urban concentration are higher for high- than for low-income countries and are mainly driven by the ‘core’ of FUAs, rather than by sub-urban areas.

Keywords: Urban concentration; Long-run economic dynamics; Employment growth; GDP per capita growth; Labour productivity growth; Cross-country analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 O47 O57 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02, Revised 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-mac and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg2106.pdf Version February 2021 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance? (2022)
Working Paper: Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:2106

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