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The Rise & Fall of Urban Concentration in Britain: Zipf, Gibrat and Gini across two centuries

Author

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  • Ronan Lyons

    (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin)

  • Elisa Maria Tirindelli

    (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin)

Abstract

While city size and growth are the subject of a substantial literature, consensus is lacking on the extent to which Zipf's Law or Gibrat's Law holds across space and time. We examine city size, rank and growth in Britain 1801-2011 and show conclusions depend on city definition, sample cutoff and regression methods. We find Zipf's Law cannot be rejected under the strongest combination of data and methods, unlike if other data or methods are used. Across Zipf, Gibrat and Gini analyses, we find that urban concentration in Britain peaked in the mid-19th century but fell 1861-1911 and 1951-1991.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronan Lyons & Elisa Maria Tirindelli, 2022. "The Rise & Fall of Urban Concentration in Britain: Zipf, Gibrat and Gini across two centuries," Trinity Economics Papers tep0522, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0522
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    File URL: https://www.tcd.ie/Economics/TEP/2022/TEP0522.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great Britain; Zipf's Law; urban growth; Gibrat's Law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N9 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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