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Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance?

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  • Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés

Abstract

This paper uses a novel, globally-harmonised city-level dataset —with cities defined at the Functional Urban Area (FUA) level— to revisit the link between urban concentration and country-level economic dynamics. The empirical analysis, involving 108 low- and high-income countries, examines how differences in urban concentration impinge on changes in employment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, and labour productivity at country level over the period 2000-2016. The results indicate that urban concentration reduces employment growth, but increases GDP per capita and labour productivity growth. The returns of urban concentration are higher for high- than for low-income countries, and are mainly driven by the ‘core’ of FUAs, rather than by sub-urban areas.

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  • Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2022. "Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108902, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:108902
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban concentration; long-run economic dynamics; employment growth; GDP per capita growth; labour productivity; Cross-country analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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