Urban Evolutions: The Fast, the Slow, and the Still

With the use of French and US data, new and systematic evidence is provided about the rapid location changes of industries across cities (the fast). Cities are also slowly moving up and down the urban hierarchy (the slow), while the size distribution of cities is skewed to the right and very stable...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review 2007-03, Vol.97 (1), p.197-221
Main Author: Duranton, Gilles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agglomeration
Cities
Employment
Innovations
Location of industry
Monopolies
Simulation
Studies
Technological change
Zipf's Law
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Summary:With the use of French and US data, new and systematic evidence is provided about the rapid location changes of industries across cities (the fast). Cities are also slowly moving up and down the urban hierarchy (the slow), while the size distribution of cities is skewed to the right and very stable (the still). The model proposed here reproduces these three features. Small, innovation-driven shocks lead to the churning of industries across cities. Then, cities slowly grow or decline following net gains or losses of industries. These changes occur within a stable distribution. The quantitative implications of the model are also explored. (JEL R12, R32)
ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/aer.97.1.197