Based on the realities of the cities of São Paulo, Brasilia, Fortaleza and Belém, the author explores the dynamics that characterize the activities of the national economy in the period of globalization. As big city economies are increasingly based in information and finance activities, work...

New, “big” data sources allow measurement of city characteristics and outcome variables higher frequencies and finer geographic scales than ever before. However, big data will not solve large urban social science questions on its own. Big data has the most value for the study of cities when...