Task Trade and the Size Distribution of Cities

Kohei Nagamachi
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Kohei Nagamachi: Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-F-886, CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: 　　 Taking account of the increasing importance of task trade in urban contexts, this paper provides a model of a system of cities in which ex ante identical locations specialize in tasks that differ in their skill intensity, resulting in a unique size distribution of cities. The necessary and sufficient condition for a power law including Zipf's law is derived, and a quantitative analysis shows that the model is consistent with the size distribution of U.S. cities. A welfare analysis is also conducted, suggesting excess agglomeration with sizable welfare loss under laissez-faire.

Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:fseres:2013cf886

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