Complex Economic Activities Concentrate in Large Cities

Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Cristian Jara-Figueroa, Sergio Petralia, Mathieu Steijn, David Rigby and Cesar Hidalgo

No 1829, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Why do some economic activities agglomerate more than others? And, why does the agglomeration of some economic activities continue to increase despite recent developments in communication and transportation technologies? In this paper, we present evidence that complex economic activities concentrate more in large cities. We find this to be true for technologies, scientific publications, industries, and occupations. Using historical patent data, we show that the urban concentration of complex economic activities has been continuously increasing since 1850. These findings suggest that the increasing urban concentration of jobs and innovation might be a consequence of the growing complexity of the economy.

Keywords: economic complexity; complexity; scaling; occupations; cities; agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-07, Revised 2018-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his, nep-ino, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg1829.pdf Version July 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities (2020)
Working Paper: Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:1829

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