American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Urban Evolutions: The Fast, the Slow, and the Still
American Economic Review
vol. 97,
no. 1, March 2007
(pp. 197–221)
Abstract
With the use of French and US data, new and systematic evidence is provided about the rapid location changes of industries across cities (the fast). Cities are also slowly moving up and down the urban hierarchy (the slow), while the size distribution of cities is skewed to the right and very stable (the still). The model proposed here reproduces these three features. Small, innovation-driven shocks lead to the churning of industries across cities. Then, cities slowly grow or decline following net gains or losses of industries. These changes occur within a stable distribution. The quantitative implications of the model are also explored. (JEL R12, R32)Citation
Duranton, Gilles. 2007. "Urban Evolutions: The Fast, the Slow, and the Still." American Economic Review, 97 (1): 197–221. DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.1.197Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- R12 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity
- R32 Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis