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The evolution of city size distributions

In: Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics

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Author Info
Gabaix, Xavier
Ioannides, Yannis M.

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Abstract

We review the accumulated knowledge on city size distributions and determinants of urban growth. This topic is of interest because of a number of key stylized facts, including notably Zipf's law for cities (which states that the number of cities of size greater than S is proportional to 1/S) and the importance of urban primacy. We first review the empirical evidence on the upper tail of city size distribution. We offer a novel discussion of the important econometric issues in the characterization of the distribution. We then discuss the theories that have been advanced to explain the approximate constancy of the distribution across very different economic and social systems, emphasizing both barebone statistical theories and more developed economic theories. We discuss the more recent work on the determinants of urban growth and, in particular, growth regressions, economic explanations of city size distributions other than Gibrat's law, consequences of major shocks (quasi natural experiments), and the dynamics of U.S. urban evolution.

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This chapter was published in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, , chapter 53, pages 2341-2378, 2004.

This item is provided by Elsevier in its series Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics with number 4-53.

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This chapter was published in the following book, which is listed on IDEAS:
J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), 2004. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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R1 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Yannis M. Ioannides & Henry G. Overman, 1999. "Cross-Sectional Evolution of the U.S. City Size Distribution," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9926, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Eaton, Jonathan & Eckstein, Zvi, 1997. "Cities and growth: Theory and evidence from France and Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 443-474, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. J. Peter Neary, 2001. "Of Hype and Hyperbolas: Introducing the New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 536-561, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Wheaton, William C & Shishido, Hisanobu, 1981. "Urban Concentration, Agglomeration Economies, and the Level of Economic Development," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 17-30, October.
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    Other versions:
  8. Fujita, Masahisa & Mori, Tomoya, 1997. "Structural stability and evolution of urban systems," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 399-442, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Chatterjee, Satyajit & Carlino, Gerald A., 2001. "Aggregate metropolitan employment growth and the deconcentration of metropolitan employment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 549-583, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Krugman, Paul, 1996. "Confronting the Mystery of Urban Hierarchy," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 399-418, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Yannis M. Ioannides & Henry G. Overman, 2000. "Spatial Evolution of the US Urban System," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0018, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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  21. Ioannides, Yannis M. & Overman, Henry G., 2003. "Zipf's law for cities: an empirical examination," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 127-137, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  22. Fujita, Masahisa & Krugman, Paul & Mori, Tomoya, 1999. "On the evolution of hierarchical urban systems1," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 209-251, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-99, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Gerald Carlino & Satyajit Chatterjee, 2002. "Employment Deconcentration: A New Perspective on America's Postwar Urban Evolution," Journal of Regional Science, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(3), pages 445-475. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  26. Quah, Danny, 1993. "Empirical cross-section dynamics in economic growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 426-434, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  28. Reed, William J., 2001. "The Pareto, Zipf and other power laws," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 15-19, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  29. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Mark L. J. Wright, 2003. "Urban structure and growth," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 141, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Jan Eeckhout, 2004. "Gibrat's Law for (All) Cities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1429-1451, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Xavier Gabaix, 2004. "Power laws and the origins of aggregate fluctuations," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 484, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  4. Yannis M. Ioannides & Henry G. Overman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Kurt Schmidheiny, 2007. "The Effect of Information and Communication Technologies on Urban Structure," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2006. "Why Has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," NBER Working Papers 12365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Henry G. Overman, 2003. "Can We Learn Anything from Economic Geography Proper?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0586, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Adolfo Meisel Roca & Gerson Javier Pérez V, 2006. "Geografía física y poblamiento en la Costa Caribe colombiana," DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO SOBRE ECONOMÍA REGIONAL 002767, BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA - ECONOMÍA REGIONAL. [Downloadable!]
  8. Yannis Ioannides & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2005. "Urban Growth," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0513, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
  9. Cuberes, David, 2007. "A Model of Sequential City Growth," MPRA Paper 2172, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Julie Le Gallo & Coro Chasco-Yrigoyen, 2006. "Spatial Analysis of Urban Growth in Spain (1900-2001)," ERSA conference papers ersa06p878, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Harry P. Bowen & Haris Munandar & Jean-Marie Viaene, 2005. "Zipf's Law for Integrated Economies," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-048/2, Tinbergen Institute, revised 06 Feb 2007. [Downloadable!]
  12. Hubert P. Janicki & Edward S. Prescott, 2006. "Changes in the size distribution of U.S. banks: 1960-2005," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Fall, pages 291-316. [Downloadable!]
  13. Harald Uhlig, 2006. "Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-004, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Jeroen Hinloopen & Charles van Marrewijk, 2006. "Comparative Advantage, the Rank-size Rule, and Zipf's Law," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-100/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  15. Gordon H. Hanson, 1998. "Market Potential, Increasing Returns, and Geographic Concentration," NBER Working Papers 6429, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  16. Maarten Bosker & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Herman de Jong & Marc Schramm, 2007. "The Development of Cities in Italy 1300 – 1861," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
  17. Harry P. Bowen & Haris Munandar & Jean-Marie Viaene, 2006. "Evidence and Implications of Zipf’s Law for Integrated Economies," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  18. Lüders, Erik & Lüders-Amann, Inge & Schröder, Michael, 2004. "The Power Law and Dividend Yields," ZEW Discussion Papers 04-51, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  19. Kwok Tong Soo, 2004. "Zipfs Law for Cities: A Cross Country Investigation," CEP Discussion Papers dp0641, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  20. Andrew K. Rose, 2005. "Cities and Countries," NBER Working Papers 11762, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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