This paper explores the macroeconomic consequences of regulatory barriers in housing markets. We take a European perspective, allowing us to offer novel facts, theory, and methodology. Our focus is on Germany, a compelling case exemplifying key characteristics unique to European city systems. To...

We study the post-war effects of the bombing of German cities during WWII on urban growth and use the synthetic control method (SCM) to construct comparison units for affected West-German cities. The reason to use SCM is that cities might experience structural changes that have nothing to do...

Being intertwined with economic development, urbanization determines the present and future development path of regions and countries. The intimate relationship between urban expansion and economic development is of particular interest in the case of large regions with complex (and mostly...

This paper extends the urban growth model of Duranton and Puga (2022) to explore the impact of cities on local firms and households and the aggregate economy of Germany. We adopt alternative micro-foundations for agglomeration economies and a non-linear specification of human capital...

Rapid urbanization in Lebanon poses problems of adaptation to climate change. This article aims to forecast and characterize urban growth, and to cross-analyze urban growth with anticipated temperature and precipitation information. It uses a combination of land use and land cover forecasts with...

This paper explores the macroeconomic consequences of regulatory barriers in housing markets. We take a European perspective, allowing us to offer novel facts, theory, and methodology. Our focus is on Germany, a compelling case exemplifying key characteristics unique to European city systems. To...

Previous studies suggest that market forces and the strategic behavior of local governments regarding land development jointly contribute to rapid urban expansion in China. In underdeveloped small cities in Western China, the market is weak, and local governments lack the conditions required to...

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As) are strategic business transactions that combine the ownership of one firm with another, typically to achieve synergies, growth, and diversification. However, the spatial implications of transferring corporate control between cities have been largely overlooked....

We examine the effect of a large-scale administrative reorganization in China, where counties are annexed into cities to accommodate urban growth. We present a simple model to illustrate how this annexation may affect firm entry decisions and in turn land market outcomes. Using nationwide data...

We study the post-war effects of the bombing of German cities during WWII on urban growth and use the synthetic control method (SCM) to construct comparison units for affected West-German cities. The reason to use SCM is that cities might experience structural changes that have nothing to do...

We examine how agglomeration economies have influenced labour earnings in France over forty years. First, we define cities dynamically to account for their changing footprints. Our findings show that aggregate wage growth is mainly driven by growth in larger cities, rather than smaller ones or...

Land use modelling is essential to understanding future land use and change dynamics. Analyses of land use and change using Cellular Automata (CA) have been frequent in the literature since the latter were introduced to geography in the 1970s. In this paper, the statistical subsections - city...

The West African region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in Africa has over decades experienced rapid rate of urbanization. The urbanization processes have been associated with manifold environmental and socioeconomic challenges including inefficient urban infrastructure, unaffordable...

The ability of cities to recuperate from disturbances and return to their evolutionary pathways depends, first and foremost, on the type of damage that the shock created. But in addition, it depends on how information is transmitted in the urban system and on how noise filters distort the...

This study extends the concept of granularity from firms to cities, examining how large cities influence national economic dynamics beyond their relative size. By applying Zipf's law, which describes the power law distribution of city sizes, we investigate the interplay between granularity and...

Urban structures and urban growth rates are highly persistent. This has far-reaching implications for the optimal size and timing of new construction. We prove that rational developers postpone construction not because prospects are gloomy, but because they are bright. The slow mean reversion in...

This paper extends the urban growth model of Duranton and Puga (2022) to explore the impact of cities on local firms and households and the aggregate economy of Germany. We adopt alternative micro-foundations for agglomeration economies and a non-linear specification of human capital...

Previous studies report mixed findings on the causal relationship between language diversity and its representation of cultural diversity, and economic and social development. We consider language relatedness a prerequisite for language diversity research, and theoretically analyze the impact of...

Heterogeneous and unplanned urban growth, with inadequate infrastructure and smaller housing and built up areas is a common feature in developing countries. The existing modelling approaches over the years in understanding urban heterogeneity, however, may not be able to apprehend heterogeneous...

How does an area’s proximity to big cities affect its growth? Using county-level data from China for 1990–2020, we find that an area’s being close to big cities (in the 150–250 km range) reduces the decadal population growth rate by 2.8–3.8 percentage points. Initial agricultural...

Urbanization in Ethiopia is increasing rapidly, leading to environmental changes and necessitating improved urban infrastructure. Dire Dawa, the second most populous city in Ethiopia, has a high rate of urban growth. However, there is no clear plan for a viable water supply source. This study...

We apply the Gross City Development Index (GCD-Index) by Ruiz Estrada and Park (2019) in the case of Mexico City, Mexico. The GCD-Index calculation is based on the concept of City integral sustainable development platform. The platform consists of ten main structures, which are (i) Main...

We apply the Gross City Development Index (GCD-Index) by Ruiz Estrada and Park (2019) in the case of Helsinki, Finland. The GCD-Index calculation is based on the concept of city integral sustainable development platform. The platform consists of ten main structures, which are (i) Main...

Are Chinese cities too agglomerated, and are production factors continuing to flow to cities? Based on the panel data of 31 provinces and cities from 2006 to 2019，it is generally believed that urbanization has a positive role in promoting economic growth. This paper adds economic agglomeration...

Tall buildings are central to facilitating sustainable urbanization and growth in cities worldwide. We estimate average elasticities of city population and built area to aggregate city building heights of 0.12 and -0.17, respectively, indicating that the largest global cities in developing...

In order to explore the causal relationship between the level of urban digital construction and urban economic growth, this paper takes 280 cities in China as the research object and constructs a comprehensive indicator evaluation system covering digital infrastructure, overall economic level,...