Demography, Urbanization and Development: Rural Push, Urban Pull and... Urban Push?

At the intersection of urbanisation and counterurbanisation in rural space: Microurbanisation in Northern Iceland

“…In many developing countries, the growth of micropolitan centers in rural regions has been contributed to 'urbanisation from below' or 'in situ urbanisation' (Li et al, 2020) where natural fertility enables population growth despite strong flows of out-migration and even stronger population growth in metropolitan areas (Crankshaw and Borel-Saladin, 2019;Fox, 2017;Jedwab et al, 2017). Many developed countries, in contrast, suffer from natural population decline and, as Argent et al (2008) have pointed out, growing regional centres in declining rural areas are frequently portrayed as 'sponges' that soak up the population of the surrounding areas.…”

“…Beyond the immediate gravitational spheres of larger cities, endogenous population growth has in many cases contributed to the growth of urban centers in rural regions (Crankshaw and Borel-Saladin, 2019;Fox, 2017;Jedwab et al, 2017) in a process alternatively referred to as 'rural urbanisation', 'urbanisation from below' or 'in situ urbanisation' (Li et al, 2020). However, the importance of natural fertility for population growth notwithstanding, urban centers in rural regions often become magnets for both rural-to-urban migrants seeking more urban amenities and metropolitan urban-to-rural migrants seeking more rural amenities (Brown et al, 2004;Carson and Carson, 2021;Elliot and Perry, 1996;Gkartzios et al, 2017;Vias, 2012).…”

Using Satellite Imagery to Revolutionize Creation of Tax Maps and Local Revenue Collection

“…While not eliminating the economic and risk diversification benefits of urbanization, 3 failure to develop institutions for effective planning and resource mobilization (Besley et al 2013) to reduce the demons of density may lead to a situation where the costs of urbanization outweigh the benefits. Empirical evidence suggests that many African cities have thus far failed to live up to this challenge (Jedwab et al 2017) and instead are crowded, costly, and disconnected (Lall et al 2017). 4 In light of the durability of urban buildings and infrastructure, this may in the long term affect city structure and competitiveness.…”

Population sorting and human capital accumulation

“…Motivated by rapid urban expansion in the developing world (Glaeser, 2014) that has often occurred in the face of low or negative economic growth over decades (Henderson, 2003), growing recent literature has provided various explanations for the observed "urbanization without growth" (Jedwab et al, 2017;Castelles-Quintana, 2017;Jedwab and Vollrath, 2019 and references therein). By showing how uncontrolled lower skilled migration from the periphery may inhibit human capital accumulation in the more urbanized core, thereby adversely affecting the prospects for economic growth in the whole economy, the present work also provides additional insight into this phenomenon.…”