One of the most notable features of literature about "new economic geography" is a close association between theoretical and empirical work. In contrast to earlier research, theoretical studies are often much more strongly focused on real-world phenomena. At the same time, empirical work is...

The evolution of city growth is usually studied for relatively short time periods. The rise and decline of cities is, however, typically a process that takes many decades or even centuries. In this paper we study the evolution of Italian cities over the period 1300-1861. The first contribution...