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History and Urban Economics

Author

Listed:
  • W. Walker Hanlon
  • Stephan Heblich

Abstract

This article reviews recent literature using insights from history to answer central questions in urban economics. This area of research has seen rapid growth in the past decade, thanks to new technologies that have made available increasingly rich data stretching far back in time. The focus is to review innovative methods to exploit historical information and discuss applications of these data that provide new insights into (i) the long run growth of cities or regional economies and (ii) the spatial organization of economic activities within cities. The review also surveys the growing literature outside urban economics that uses the historical urbanization as a proxy for economic growth, discusses differences between how economic historians and urban economists think about the relationship between urbanization and growth, and considers how these views might be reconciled.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Walker Hanlon & Stephan Heblich, 2020. "History and Urban Economics," NBER Working Papers 27850, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27850
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    Cited by:

    1. Atsushi Yamagishi & Yasuhiro Sato, 2022. "Measuring Discrimination in Spatial Equilibrium: 100 Years of Japan's Invisible Race," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1188, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    2. Cox, Gary W. & Figueroa, Valentin, 2025. "Agglomeration and creativity in early modern Britain," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata & Wei, Jinlin, 2023. "Railways and cities in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Lukas Kuld & Sara Mitchell & Christiane Hellmanzik, 2021. "Manhattan Transfer: Productivity effects of agglomeration in American authorship," Trinity Economics Papers tep0821, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Nagy, Dávid Krisztián, 2022. "Quantitative economic geography meets history: Questions, answers and challenges," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Magnus Neubert & Stefan Nikolić, 2025. "Why railways fail: Colonial railways and economic development in Habsburg Bosnia-Herzegovina," Working Papers 0280, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    7. Garcia-López, Miquel-Àngel & Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet, 2024. "The role of historic amenities in shaping cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. David Krisztián Nagy, 2020. "Quantitative economic geography meets history: Questions, answers and challenges," Economics Working Papers 1774, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Mar 2021.
    9. Miotto, Martina & Pascali, Luigi, 2025. "Solving the longitude puzzle: A story of clocks, ships and cities," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Barone, Guglielmo & de Blasio, Guido & Gentili, Elena, 2025. "Politically connected cities: Italy 1951–1991," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Dávid Nagy & Dávid Krisztián Nagy, 2021. "Quantitative Economic Geography Meets History: Questions, Answers and Challenges," Working Papers 1249, Barcelona School of Economics.
    12. Duc A. Nguyen & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Tristan Kohl, 2023. "What’s in a Name? Initial Geography and German Urban Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 10435, CESifo.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services
    • N9 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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