Recent Developments in the Greek System of Urban Centres

Abstract

In this paper we examine the recent developments in the Greek system of urban centres, in order to assess the validity of the view that trends of deconcentration have been in operation during the last decade. Estimation of the rank — size distribution functions for all the postwar census years shows that concentration trends were prevalent until the early 1980s. During the last decade, however, stabilisation or even deconcentration trends have appeared with the faster development of smaller cities. This finding should not be taken as an indication of a trend reversal towards more balanced spatial development, as further analysis shows that the faster growing smaller cities are largely satellite cities of the metropolitan centres of Athens and Thessaloniki. Based on the results of regression analysis, we conclude with a discussion on the factors contributing to differential urban growth performance and the policy implications of these findings for metropolitan regions and balanced growth in Greece.

Regional asymmetries in monetary policy transmission: The case of the Greek regions

“…Notio Aigaio (NAIG), Dytiki Makedonia (DM), Ionia Nisia (IO) and Voreio Aigaio (VAIG). over the last two decades due to the implementation of policies aiming to limit urban sprawl or due to the fact that their suburbs and satellite cities or regions have been growing considerably (Petrakos et al, 1999). In 2009, the per capita regional product in the richest region (Attiki, 13,794) is twice as much of the poorest one (Dytiki Ellada, 64,563).…”

Institutional Responses to EU Challenges: Attempting to Articulate a Local Regulatory Scale in Greece

“…As a result, the wave of deindustrialization noted in Northern European cities during the 1970s did not appear in the Greek urban system (Cheshire, 1995). More importantly, the majority of urban centres in the country have shown continuous population gains ever since, suggesting an urban economic structure that differs substantially from the typical manifestations of urban industrial restructuring (Petrakos and Mardakis, 1999). The key socio‐political attributes of the post‐war era indicate an equally distinctive regulatory environment that reflects (and influenced) this particularity.…”

City size distribution across the OECD: Does the definition of cities matter?

“…This type of regularity has been tested for cities in various countries, including, among others, China (Song & Zhang, 2002), France (Guérin-Pace, 1995), Germany (Giesen et al, 2010), Greece (Petrakos, Mardakis, & Caraveli, 2000) and the United States (Black & Henderson, 2003;Eeckhout, 2004;González-Val, 2010). Applications of Zipf's law are also observed using data different from city level.…”