Urbanization and the Geography of Development

Henderson, J. Vernon

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO CAPITAL;    ACCOUNTING;    AGGLOMERATION BENEFITS;    AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES;    AIRCRAFT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6877
RP-ID  :  WPS6877

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper focuses on three interrelatedquestions on urbanization and the geography of development.First, although we herald cities with their industrial basesas "engines of growth," does industrialization infact drive urbanization? While such relationships appear inthe data, the process is not straightforward. Amongdeveloping countries, changes in income or industrializationcorrelate only weakly with changes in urbanization. Thissuggests that policy and institutional factors may alsoinfluence the urbanization process. In fact, therelationship between industrialization and urbanization isabsent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, do developmentpolicies have a big-city bias and, if so, what does thisimply for growth and inequality? Intelligent publicinfrastructure investment inevitably involves pickingwinners. One hopes that such choices are based on marketindicators, such as where industry is starting toagglomerate and where there are clear needs. Yet governmentsseem to favor the biggest cities which in turn draw firmsand migrants to these cities. To try to avoid excessivein-migration and oversized, congested cities, favored citiesmight adopt policies that make living conditions formigrants more unpleasant. This can result in increasedinequality and social tension. Finally, the paper examinescity sizes and city-size distributions. Factors determiningboth aspects are complex and poorly understood. It is hardto be proscriptive about either individual city sizes oroverall city-size distributions. The best policiesstrengthen institutions in the relevant markets so thatmarket forces can move the economy toward better outcomes.