Population, light, and the size distribution of cities

Düben, Christian; Krause, Melanie

doi:10.1111/jors.12507

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(145 reference statements)

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“…To this date, and in spite of numerous efforts by teams worldwide, there has not been a universally accepted definition, which could moreover be implemented consistently by governments worldwide. The increasingly popular reliance on high-resolution, pioneered by Rozenfeld et al [74], and satellite-based lights data, most recently used by Duben and Krause [75], for measuring city sizes, are very exciting developments, but they have not yet been accompanied by complementary information on ICT adoption at a comparably granular level. A promising new development is the EU's Global Human Settlements Initiative and the associated spatial urban data sets; see Pesaresi et al [76].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubiquitous digital technologies and spatial structure; an update

Tranos

Ioannides

2021

PLoS ONE

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This paper examines the impact of widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) on urban structure worldwide. Has it offset agglomeration benefits and led to more dispersed spatial structures, or has it strengthened urban externalities and thus resulted in more concentrated spatial structures? Theoretical and empirical studies on this question have produced contradictory findings. The present study recognizes that assumptions made earlier about the evolution of technological capabilities do not necessarily hold today. As cutting-edge digital technologies have matured considerably, a fresh look at this question is called for. The paper addresses this issue by means of several data sets using instrumental variable methods. One is the UN data on Urban Settlements with more than 300, 000 inhabitants. Estimation methods with these data show that increased adoption of ICT has resulted in national urban systems that are less uniform in terms of city sizes and are characterized by higher population concentrations in larger cities, when concentration is proxied the Pareto (Zipf) coefficient for national city size distributions. Two, is disaggregated data for the urban systems of the US, defined as Micropolitan and Metropolitan Areas, and for the UK, defined as Built-up Areas in England and Wales, respectively. These data allow for the impacts to be studied for cities smaller than those included in the cross-country data. Increased internet usage improved a city’s ranking in the US urban system. Similarly, increased download speed improves a built-up area’s ranking in England and Wales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubiquitous digital technologies and spatial structure; an update

Tranos

Ioannides

2021

PLoS ONE

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“…However, the rise of over-congested cities in poor countries raises questions about their origins, which we investigate. 2 Second, locational choices are explained by both local productivities and amenities (Rosen 1979, Roback 1982, Albouy 2008, Albouy and Stuart 2014. We show that a specific amenity-higher life expectancy-has contributed to urbanization in poor countries.…”

Section: The Urban Mortality Transition and Poor-countrymentioning

confidence: 74%

The Urban Mortality Transition and Poor-Country Urbanization

Jedwab

Vollrath

2019

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics

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Today, the world’s fastest-growing cities lie in low-income countries, unlike the historical norm. Also, unlike the “killer cities” of history, cities in low-income countries grow not just through in-migration but also through their own natural increase. First, we use novel historical data to document that many poor countries urbanized at the same time as the postwar urban mortality transition. Second, we develop a framework incorporating location choice with heterogeneity in demographics and congestion costs across locations to account for this. In the framework, people prefer to live in low-mortality locations, and the aggregate rate of population growth and the locational choice of individuals interact. Third, we calibrate this to data from a sample of poor countries and find that informal urban areas (e.g., slums) can absorb additional population more easily than other locations. We show that between 1950 and 2005 the urban mortality transition could have doubled the urbanization rate as well as the size of informal urban areas in this sample. Of these effects, one-third could be attributed to the amenity effect of lower urban mortality rates, while the remainder is due to higher population growth disproportionately pushing people into informal urban areas. Fourth, simulations suggest that family planning programs, as well as industrialization or urban infrastructure and institutions may be effective in slowing poor-country urbanization. (JEL I12, J11, N30, O15, O18, R11, R23)

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“…Some studies have confirmed an "inverted U-shaped" relationship between city size and income inequality (14). In terms of QoL, three main conclusions have been drawn: (1) Establish an evaluation index system to evaluate the quality of city life (15,16). (2) Based on the spatial equilibrium hypothesis, examine the quality of city life from the perspective of implicit value (17)(18)(19).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of city size on the disability rate of the older adults: empirical evidence from CHARLS data

Liu,

Wang,

2024

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundExploring the value orientation of city development from the perspective of people’s well-being is key to clarifying the current debate on city size strategies.MethodsBased on the survey data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in two phases, and by using the unbalanced panel-ordered logit model, stepwise analysis method, and KHB method, among others, we discuss the impact of city size on the disability rate of older adults.ResultsThe study finds that city size significantly and positively affects the activities of daily living (ADL) of older adults, with odd ratios of 1.3286 (95% CI = [1.082243, 1.631089]), and exhibits significant group heterogeneity in terms of age, registered residence, income, and education level. City size has indeed played an mediation role through the health improvement effect, disease mitigation effect, emotional effect, and employment structure optimization effect, with a cumulative contribution rate of the mediation effect of 35.17%. In addition, the urban sprawl index has a significant moderation role.DiscussionRobust urban sprawl is conducive to promoting the improvement of the regional health environment, the improvement of the medical security policy, the optimization of the family support policy, and the employment structure, thus helping to reduce the disability rate of older adults.

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Population, light, and the size distribution of cities

Cited by 25 publications

References 79 publications

Ubiquitous digital technologies and spatial structure; an update

Ubiquitous digital technologies and spatial structure; an update

The Urban Mortality Transition and Poor-Country Urbanization

The effect of city size on the disability rate of the older adults: empirical evidence from CHARLS data

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