This paper follows Hochman, Pines and Thisse (1995) in portraying metropolitan areas as a complex of spatial clubs. Adopting this perspective, the paper characterizes the role of urbanization economies in the agglomeration of non-residential activities inside metropolitan areas.

This paper discusses three aspects of urbanization: the effect of urbanization (that is, aggregate urban population growth) on agglomeration, the discontinuity of urban population partition among urban areas, and the failure of laissez-faire to induce the emergence of new urban areas...

The supply of local public goods would obey principles that are not fundamentally different from those governing the efficient supply of differentiated goods. All these results rest on the assumption of an efficient land market. This suggests that the problem of land property rights should...