Quelle place pour les villes moyennes dans une économie tertiaire ?

Since the 70s, France has experienced deeply new spatial economic trends, largely driven by the business service sector. Medium sized cities appear to be suffering from such trends which much more benefit to larger urban conurbations. Mid-size cities grow at a slower rate and mainly differ from larger ones by some typical weaknesses in their economies: underdevelopment of business services, research activities and higher skilled labour. Data from the 1982 to 1999 censuses show however that the city size doesn’t directly explain the dynamic gaps observed. More precisely, the dynamism of middle size cities depends on the level of skill developed by their business services; on the opposite, an excessively specialised economy may hinder economic growth, as will also do a too high rate of retired people. These results suggest some paths which may be useful to local development policies.