1995/02/01 by Alberto Ades, Edward L. Glaeser · 4 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Arts and Humanities · #Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis #Art History and Market Analysis #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Volume (thermodynamics) #History #Physics
paper · doi:10.2307/2118515
openalex publication_date 1995/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Using theory, case studies, and cross-country evidence, we investigate the factors behind the concentration of a nation's urban population in a single city. High tariffs, high costs of internal trade, and low levels of international trade increase the degree of concentration. Even more clearly, politics (such as the degree of instability) determines urban primacy. Dictatorships have central cities that are, on average, 50 percent larger than their democratic counterparts. Using information about the timing of city growth, and a series of instruments, we conclude that the predominant causality is from political factors to urban concentration, not from concentration to political change.