IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2010-029.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Agglomeration Index: Towards a New Measure of Urban Concentration

Author

Listed:
  • Hirotsugu Uchida
  • Andrew Nelson

Abstract

A common challenge in analyzing urbanization is the data. The United Nations (UN) compiles information on urbanization (urban population and its share of total national population) that is reported by various countries but there is no standardized definition of 'urban', resulting in inconsistencies. This situation is particularly troublesome if one wishes to conduct a cross-country analysis or determine the aggregate urbanization status of the regions (such as Asia or Latin America) and the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Hirotsugu Uchida & Andrew Nelson, 2010. "Agglomeration Index: Towards a New Measure of Urban Concentration," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-029, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2010-29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Baldwin & Rikard Forslid & Philippe Martin & Gianmarco Ottaviano & Frederic Robert-Nicoud, 2005. "Economic Geography and Public Policy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 7524.
    2. Rosen, Kenneth T. & Resnick, Mitchel, 1980. "The size distribution of cities: An examination of the Pareto law and primacy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 165-186, September.
    3. Alberto F. Ades & Edward L. Glaeser, 1995. "Trade and Circuses: Explaining Urban Giants," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(1), pages 195-227.
    4. 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.
    5. Cohen, Barney, 2004. "Urban Growth in Developing Countries: A Review of Current Trends and a Caution Regarding Existing Forecasts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 23-51, January.
    6. Henderson, Vernon, 2003. "The Urbanization Process and Economic Growth: The So-What Question," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 47-71, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-084 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Andre Lemelin & Fernando Rubiera-Morollón & Ana Gómez-Loscos, 2016. "Measuring Urban Agglomeration: A Refoundation of the Mean City-Population Size Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 589-612, January.
    3. Shashidhara Kolavalli & Elizabeth Robinson & Guyslain Ngeleza & Felix Asante, 2012. "Economic Transformation in Ghana: Where Will the Path Lead?," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 14(2), pages 41-78.
    4. Emma Howard & Carol Newman & Finn Tarp, 2016. "Measuring industry coagglomeration and identifying the driving forces," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 1055-1078.
    5. Cervellati, Matteo & Esposito, Elena & Sunde, Uwe & Yuan, Song, 2022. "Malaria and Chinese economic activities in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    6. Deeken, Tim & Ott, Ingrid, 2014. "Integration as a spatial institution: Implications for agglomeration and growth," Working Paper Series in Economics 59, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    7. Sean Fox & Robin Bloch & Jose Monroy, 2018. "Understanding the dynamics of Nigeria’s urban transition: A refutation of the ‘stalled urbanisation’ hypothesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(5), pages 947-964, April.
    8. Tandel, Vaidehi & Hiranandani, Komal & Kapoor, Mudit, 2019. "What’s in a definition? A study on the suitability of the current urban definition in India through its employment guarantee programme," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 69-84.
    9. Conte, Bruno & Piemontese, Lavinia & Tapsoba, Augustin, 2023. "The power of markets: Impact of desert locust invasions on child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    10. Graw, Valerie & Husmann, Christine Ladenburger, 2012. "Mapping Marginality Hotspots – Geographical Targeting for Poverty Reduction," Working Papers 147917, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    11. Deborah Strumsky & Jose Lobo & Charlotta Mellander, 2021. "As different as night and day: Scaling analysis of Swedish urban areas and regional labor markets," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(2), pages 231-247, February.
    12. Catherine Ragasa & Jennifer Golan, 2014. "The role of rural producer organizations for agricultural service provision in fragile states," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(5), pages 537-553, September.
    13. Capriolo, A. & Boschetto, R.G. & Mascolo, R.A. & Balbi, S. & Villa, F., 2020. "Biophysical and economic assessment of four ecosystem services for natural capital accounting in Italy," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    14. van Duijne, Robbin Jan, 2019. "Why India’s urbanization is hidden: Observations from “rural” Bihar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Quansheng Ge & Mengmeng Hao & Fangyu Ding & Dong Jiang & Jürgen Scheffran & David Helman & Tobias Ide, 2022. "Modelling armed conflict risk under climate change with machine learning and time-series data," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Luke Abbs, 2020. "The hunger games: Food prices, ethnic cleavages and nonviolent unrest in Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(2), pages 281-296, March.
    17. Fujii, Hidemichi & Iwata, Kazuyuki & Chapman, Andrew & Kagawa, Shigemi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2018. "An analysis of urban environmental Kuznets curve of CO2 emissions: Empirical analysis of 276 global metropolitan areas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1561-1568.
    18. De Pinto, Alessandro & Li, Man & Haruna, Akiko & Hyman, Glenn Graham & Martinez, Mario Andrés Londoño & Creamer, Bernardo & Kwon, Ho-Young & Garcia, Jhon Brayan Valencia & Tapasco, Jeimar & Martinez, , 2016. "Low Emission Development Strategies in Agriculture. An Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 180-203.
    19. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2011. "Urbanization as a Fundamental Cause of Development," Working Papers DTE 501, CIDE, División de Economía.
    20. Libang Ma & Meimei Chen & Xinglong Che & Fang Fang, 2019. "Research on Population-Land-Industry Relationship Pattern in Underdeveloped Regions: Gansu Province of Western China as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, April.
    21. Bigerna, Simona & D'Errico, Maria Chiara & Polinori, Paolo, 2022. "Understanding the green-growth: which pathways cities undertake in their climate programs," MPRA Paper 114156, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Emma Howard & Carol Newman & Finn Tarp, 2016. "Measuring industry coagglomeration and identifying the driving forces," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(5), pages 1055-1078.
    23. Audrey Dorélien & Deborah Balk & Megan Todd, 2013. "What Is Urban? Comparing a Satellite View with the Demographic and Health Surveys," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 39(3), pages 413-439, September.
    24. Gallemore, Caleb & Jespersen, Kristjan, 2016. "Transnational Markets for Sustainable Development Governance: The Case of REDD+," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 79-94.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uchida, Hirotsugu & Nelson, Andrew, 2010. "Agglomeration Index Towards a New Measure of Urban Concentration," WIDER Working Paper Series 029, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Sabyasachi Tripathi, 2013. "Do Large Agglomerations Lead To Economic Growth? Evidence From Urban India," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 176-200, November.
    3. Cem Karayalcin & Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2015. "Trade and Cities," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 523-549.
    4. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    5. Karayalcin, Cem & Ulubasoglu, Mehmet Ali, 2009. "Romes without empires: urban concentration, political competition, and economic growth," Working Papers eco_2009_18, Deakin University, Department of Economics.
    6. Karayalcin, Cem & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet Ali, 2020. "Romes without empires: Urban concentration, political competition, and economic development," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Marius Brülhart, 2011. "The spatial effects of trade openness: a survey," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(1), pages 59-83, April.
    8. Maurice CATIN & Saïd HANCHANE & Abdelhak KAMAL, 2008. "URBANISATION, PRIMATIE ET eTAPES DE DeVELOPPEMENT : EXISTE-T-IL UNE COURBE EN CLOCHE ?," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 27, pages 83-108.
    9. Frederick van der Ploeg & Steven Poelhekke, 2008. "Globalization and the rise of mega-cities in the developing world," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 477-501.
    10. J. Vernon Henderson & Sebastian Kriticos, 2018. "The Development of the African System of Cities," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 287-314, August.
    11. Getu Hailu & B. James Deaton, 2016. "Agglomeration Effects in Ontario’s Dairy Farming," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1055-1073.
    12. Michel DIMOU, 2008. "Urbanisation, Agglomeration Effects And Regional Inequality : An Introduction," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 27, pages 7-12.
    13. 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.
    14. Christian Düben & Melanie Krause, 2021. "Population, light, and the size distribution of cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 189-211, January.
    15. Yannis M. Ioannides & Henry G. Overman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Kurt Schmidheiny, 2008. "The effect of information and communication technologies on urban structure [‘Trade and circuses: Explaining urban giants’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 23(54), pages 202-242.
    16. Gabaix, Xavier & Ioannides, Yannis M., 2004. "The evolution of city size distributions," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 53, pages 2341-2378, Elsevier.
    17. Murata, Yasusada, 2008. "Engel's law, Petty's law, and agglomeration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 161-177, August.
    18. Thisse, Jacques-François & Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Gaigné, Carl & Behrens, Kristian, 2003. "Inter-regional and International Trade: Seventy Years After Ohlin," CEPR Discussion Papers 4065, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Bluhm, Richard & Krause, Melanie, 2022. "Top lights: Bright cities and their contribution to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    20. Robert M Anthony & Kristopher K Robison, 2018. "Forced urbanisation: A cross-national assessment of the effects of intranational political violence on a nation’s largest cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(13), pages 2923-2945, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.