Compact cities and economic productivity in Mexico

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Scotland), 2020-08, Vol.57 (10), p.2080-2097
• Main Authors: Monkkonen, Paavo, Montejano, Jorge, Guerra, Erick, Caudillo, Camilo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agglomeration; Cities; Data collection; Economic structure; Economics; Geology; Manufacturing; Manufacturing industry; Productivity; Urban areas; Urbanization
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098019869827

This paper examines the contingent nature of agglomeration economies. Existing empirical evidence that compact cities are more productive is mostly from countries and regions with highly productive service sectors, such as the USA or Europe. We hypothesise that this relationship will differ in countries where land-intensive manufacturing activities are more productive than services. In this paper, we test this hypothesis using data from the 100 largest cities in Mexico in 1990, 2000 and 2010. Under a number of specifications, we find that the most common measures of urban compactness are, in fact, negatively associated with economic productivity. This holds even when instrumenting urban spatial structure with the underlying geology of urban areas. The findings suggest a need for greater attention to national economic structure in the study of agglomeration economies, and that policy agendas focused on compact urbanisation take account of the needs of the manufacturing sector. 本文考察了集聚经济的偶然性。现有的经验证据表明紧凑型城市生产率更高，这些证据 大多来自拥有高生产率服务部门的国家和地区，如美国或欧洲。我们假设，在土地密集 型制造业活动比服务业生产率高的国家，这种关系会有所不同。在本文中，我们使用墨 西哥100个最大城市1990年、2000年和2010年的数据来检验这一假设。在一系列参数下， 我们发现最常见的城市紧凑性衡量标准实际上与经济生产率负相关。即使在利用城市地 区的基础地理学测量城市空间结构时也是如此。研宄结果表明，在研宄集聚经济时，需 要更加关注国家经济结构，注重紧凑城市化的政策议程应考虑到制造业的需求。