This paper proposes a simple theory of a system of cities that decomposes the determinants of the city size distribution into three main components: efficiency, amenities, and frictions. Higher efficiency and better amenities lead to larger cities, but also to greater frictions through...

Paper prepared for presentation at the 8th ICABR International Conference on Agricultural Biotechnology: International Trade and Domestic Production Ravello (Italy), July 8 to 11th, 2004

Der Artikel veranschaulicht die Pendlerverflechtungen zwischen den sächsischen Gemeinden und stellt dar, welche Auswirkungen diese auf den kommunalen Finanzausgleich haben könnten. Mit den Pendlerverflechtungen geht auch eine zusätzliche Nachfrage nach öffentlichen Leistungen in den...

Hosting a mega-event is a costly activity of short duration. Still, cities frequently compete to become host of all types of events. This paper examines the effect of staging the largest and most important sporting event in the world, the Summer Olympic Games, on the host city. Applying a...

In this paper, the stylised assumption that one single 'optimal' city size exists for all cities - achieved when marginal location costs equal marginal location benefits - is abandoned, as well as the opposite view that each city operates on its own cost and production curves, defining a...

A strong positive monotonic relationship between wage inequality and city size developed between 1979 and 2007 in the United States. After accounting for differences in skill composition across cities of different sizes, we find that at least 23% of the nationwide increase in the variance of log...

The link between TGV service and local economic development is a very controversial subject. A lot of effects are quoted in the literature. But their birth is linked to a lot of different conditions. In this paper, we focus on the city size. Analyzing a TGV service in a territory as service...

Large cities produce more output per capita than small cities. This higher productivity may occur because more talented individuals sort into large cities, because large cities select more productive entrepreneurs and firms, or because of agglomeration economies. We develop a model of systems of...

We show that current measures of welfare changes which are all based on the compensated variation (CV) and the equivalent variation (EV) do not apply to an economy with cities. In addition, since these measures are utilized in a partial equilibrium analysis they capture only part of the effect...

We estimate the distribution dynamics of city income and size in China during 1984-2003 using stochastic kernel. Our results show that intra-distribution mobility are significant in both income and size and provide evidences on China experienced internal brain drain.