Patterns of Metropolitan Development: What Have We Learned?

Gregory K. Ingram
Additional contact information
Gregory K. Ingram: Research Advisory Staff, The World Bank, Room N-7-043, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, gingram@worldbank.org

Urban Studies, 1998, vol. 35, issue 7, 1019-1035

Abstract: Urban development patterns in both industrial and developing countries with market-oriented economies show strong regularities consistent with basic urban location theory. Large metropolitan areas are converging to similarly decentralised structures with multiple sub-centres, decentralised manufacturing and more centralised service employment. Decentralisation is increasing the reliance on road-based urban transport for both passengers and freight. Land markets are strong determinants of decentralisation, and the development patterns of cities without land markets differ greatly from cities with even poorly functioning land markets. Demand patterns in urban housing are similar across cities, but supply-side impediments vary widely, resulting in a wide range of the ratio of housing prices to income. The efficiency of public infrastructure provision also varies widely across cities and across sectors within cities. Large metropolitan areas in low-income countries will continue to grow as these countries urbanise.

Date: 1998
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098984466 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:35:y:1998:i:7:p:1019-1035

DOI: 10.1080/0042098984466

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().