The Political Geography of Cities

Richard Bluhm, Christian Lessmann and Paul Schaudt

No 2021-11, SoDa Laboratories Working Paper Series from Monash University, SoDa Laboratories

Abstract: We study the link between subnational capital cities and urban development using a global data set of hundreds of first-order administrative and capital city reforms from 1987 until 2018. We show that gaining subnational capital status has a sizable effect on city growth in the medium run. We provide new evidence that the effect of these reforms depends on locational fundamentals, such as market access, and that the effect is greater in countries where urbanization and industrialization occurred later. Consistent with both an influx of public investments and a private response of individuals and firms, we document that urban built-up, population, foreign aid, infrastructure, and foreign direct investment in several sectors increase once cities become subnational capitals.

Keywords: capital cities; administrative reforms; economic geography; urban primacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H10 O1 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Political Geography of Cities (2021)
Working Paper: The political geography of cities (2021)
Working Paper: The Political Geography of Cities (2021)
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