Economic theories of systems of cities explain why production and consumption activities are concentrated in a number of urban areas of different sizes and industrial composition rather than uniformly distributed in space. These theories have been successively influenced by four paradigms: i)...

This chapter provides a survey of recent developments of positive as well as normative theories of city systems. Static theory of city system emphasizes the factors that result in the formation of cities through the interaction between two opposing forces: i) agglomeration economy; ii)...