Agglomeration economies in developing countries: A meta-analysis

Arti Grover, Somik Lall and Jonathan Timmis

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2023, vol. 101, issue C

Abstract: Recent empirical work suggests that agglomeration forces are multiple times higher in developing countries than in advanced economies, but also that these cities are crowded and dysfunctional. To understand the true productivity advantages of developing country cities, we systematically evaluate nearly 1300 agglomeration elasticity estimates from 76 studies in 34 countries. Using frontier methodology for conducting meta-analyses, we find that the elasticity in developing countries are less than 1 percentage point higher than in advanced economies, with the difference not being statistically significant. Further, we present novel estimates of urban costs in developing and developed country cities – pollution, carbon emissions, wellbeing, homicides and congestion. While the levels of urban costs and the elasticity of crime are higher in developing country cities, other measures of urban cost elasticity are not different across income groups.

Keywords: Meta-analysis; Agglomeration; Developing countries; Productivity; Elasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 R11 R12 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:101:y:2023:i:c:s0166046223000364

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2023.103901

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