Urbanization with and without industrialization

Douglas Gollin (), Remi Jedwab and Dietrich Vollrath ()

Journal of Economic Growth, 2016, vol. 21, issue 1, No 2, 35-70

Abstract: Abstract We document a strong positive relationship between natural resource exports and urbanization in a sample of 116 developing nations over the period 1960–2010. In countries that are heavily dependent on resource exports, urbanization appears to be concentrated in “consumption cities” where the economies consist primarily of non-tradable services. These contrast with “production cities” that are more dependent on manufacturing in countries that have industrialized. Consumption cities in resource exporters also appear to perform worse along several measures of welfare. We offer a simple model of structural change that can explain the observed patterns of urbanization and the associated differences in city types. We note that although the development literature often assumes that urbanization is synonymous with industrialization, patterns differ markedly across developing countries. We discuss several possible implications for policy.

Keywords: Economic development; Structural change; Industrial revolution; Natural resource revolution; Urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L16 N10 N90 O18 O41 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (238)

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Journal Article: Urbanization with and without industrialization (2016)
Working Paper: Urbanization with and without Industrialization (2014)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10887-015-9121-4

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