2025/03/01 by Ricardo de Souza Alencar, Ricardo de S Alencar, Alencar, Ricardo de S +8 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis #Impact of Light on Environment and Health #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Urban Transport and Accessibility #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.00550
openalex publication_date 2025/03/01 · arxiv published 2025/03/01 · arxiv updated 2025/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
\abstractUrban scaling theories posit that larger cities exhibit disproportionately higher levels of socioeconomic activity and human interactions. Yet, evidence from developing contexts (especially those marked by stark socioeconomic disparities) remains limited. To address this gap, we analyse a month-long dataset of 3.1~billion voice-call records from Brazil's 100 most populous cities, providing a continental-scale test of urban scaling laws. We measure interactions using two complementary proxies: the number of phone-based contacts (voice-call degrees) and the number of trips inferred from consecutive calls in distinct locations. Our findings reveal clear superlinear relationships in both metrics, indicating that larger urban centres exhibit intensified remote communication and physical mobility. We further observe that gross domestic product (GDP) also scales superlinearly with population, consistent with broader claims that economic output grows faster than city size. Conversely, the number of antennas required per user scales sublinearly, suggesting economies of scale in telecommunications infrastructure. Although the dataset covers a single provider, its widespread coverage in major cities supports the robustness of the results. We nonetheless discuss potential biases, including city-specific marketing campaigns and predominantly prepaid users, as well as the open question of whether higher interaction drives wealth or vice versa. Overall, this study enriches our understanding of urban scaling, emphasising how communication and mobility jointly shape the socioeconomic landscapes of rapidly growing cities.