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    Sequential city growth: Empirical evidence


    Cuberes, David (2011) Sequential city growth: Empirical evidence. Journal of Urban Economics, 69. pp. 229-239. ISSN 0094-1190

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    Abstract

    Using two comprehensive datasets on populations of cities and metropolitan areas for a large set of countries, I present three new empirical facts about the evolution of city growth. First, the distribution of cities’ growth rates is skewed to the right in most countries and decades. Second, within a country, the average rank of each decade’s fastest-growing cities tends to rise over time. Finally, this rank increases faster in periods of rapid growth in urban population. These facts can be interpreted as evidence in favor of the hypothesis that historically, urban agglomerations have followed a sequential growth pattern: Within a country, the initially largest city is the first to grow rapidly for some years. At some point, the growth rate of this city slows down and the second-largest city then becomes the fastest-growing one. Eventually, the third-largest city starts growing fast as the two largest cities slow down, and so on.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Sequential city growth; Urbanization; City size distribution; Urban primacy; Gibrat’s law;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Finance and Accounting
    Item ID: 19607
    Identification Number: 10.1016/j.jue.2010.10.002
    Depositing User: David Cuberes
    Date Deposited: 26 Mar 2025 15:55
    Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Urban Economics
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/19607
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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