[Abstract]:The main goal of our study is to evaluate whether or not industrial diversity helps reduce the unemployment rate of a metropolitan area. We used a data set from Japan's 118 metropolitan areas from the year 1995 and determined from our analysis that although industrial diversity might reduce the unemployment rate of a metropolitan area, it is only one of several factors and that other factors might have a stronger impact on unemployment rate. Second, it was found that for both the manufacturing and the construction industry, location quotient has a negative relationship with the unemployment rate of a metropolitan area. We also discovered that the more highly educated a metropolitan population is in terms of the percentage of graduates of institutions of higher learning, the lower will be its unemployment rate.[JEL Classification]: J6, R1, R5

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The main purpose of this study is to estimate the optimal city size which would attain maximum total surplus and sustainability, or a city size in which total benefits would equal total costs. We apply regressions to the total benefit function and the total cost function for 269 employment metropolitan areas for the year 2000 in Japan. Our study can be distinguished from others in that we include in total costs such social costs as environmental pollution. Our findings are that the optimal city size is 393-433 thousand persons. The sustainable limit for city size is 1,057-1,150 thousand.

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