Megacities, the World’s Largest Cities Unleashed: Major Trends and Dynamics in Contemporary Global Urban Development

Simon Xiaobin Zhao, Natasha Shu Guo, Chun Lok Kris Li and Christopher Smith

World Development, 2017, vol. 98, issue C, 257-289

Abstract: In this study we ask two basic questions: will the megacity trend continue into the immediate and long-term future and why do more and more people continue to concentrate in the world’s biggest cities? Based on the UN dataset of all cities in the world with population 750,000 and a number of other datasets, and with an innovative application of the Gini-coefficient, this study explores the on-going trends and patterns of contemporary human urban settlement over the past half century, particularly the phenomenal growth of megacities (10 million+) and their powerful “internal” and “external” driving forces.

Keywords: megacities; the world’s largest cities; urban internal and external driving forces; global urban development; human urban settlement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:98:y:2017:i:c:p:257-289

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.038

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