Shrinking cities in Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA: From a global process to local policy responses

Comparing the quality of life of cities that gained and lost population: An assessment with DEA and the Malmquist index

“…The phenomenon of shrinking cities has been spreading all over the world (Martinez-Fernandez et al, 2016;Yang & Dunford, 2018). City shrinking is an important issue in European urban planning because, as demonstrated by Wolff and Wiechmann (2018), almost half of Europe's cities are shrinking.…”

“…The main invoked causes for shrinkage in Europe, along with the decrease in the fertility rate, are suburbanization and economic transformation (Haase, Bernt, Grobmann, Mykhnenko, & Rink, 2013). The study of shrinking cities has been less frequent in the Southern European countries when compared with the northern ones (Martinez-Fernandez et al, 2016) and only recently has the phenomenon been studied in Portugal. The research of the Portuguese shrinking cities has covered conceptual approaches (e.g., Sousa, 2010;Sousa & Pinho, 2015) and empirical approaches, being the latter mainly focused on the identification of the reasons explaining the migration of inhabitants (e.g., Barreira, Agapito, et al, 2017;Barreira et al, 2019;Barreira, Ramalho, et al, 2017;Guimarães et al, 2016b) and on the policies preferred and implemented in those cities (e.g., Guimarães et al, 2016a;Panagopoulos & Barreira, 2012).…”

“…The study of the effects of city shrinkage has been increasing as the phenomena spread worldwide (Martinez‐Fernandez et al, ; Yang & Dunford, ). Despite the relevance of the topic to several European countries, much of the literature refers to the German and British cases and, more recently, to Eastern countries (Martinez‐Fernandez et al, ); meaning that Southern European countries are less studied, including the Portuguese case.…”

“…The study of the effects of city shrinkage has been increasing as the phenomena spread worldwide (Martinez‐Fernandez et al, ; Yang & Dunford, ). Despite the relevance of the topic to several European countries, much of the literature refers to the German and British cases and, more recently, to Eastern countries (Martinez‐Fernandez et al, ); meaning that Southern European countries are less studied, including the Portuguese case. The study of the Portuguese shrinking cities has, however, been recently capturing the attention of researchers and the interest for this issue is increasing (e.g., Alves, Barreira, Guimarães, & Panagopoulos, ; Barreira, Agapito, Panagopoulos, & Guimarães, ; Barreira, Nunes, Guimarães, & Panagopoulos, ; Barreira, Ramalho, Panagopoulos, & Guimarães, ; Guimarães, Nunes, Barreira, & Panagopoulos, , ; Panagopoulos & Barreira, ; Panagopoulos, Guimarães, & Barreira, ; Sousa, ; Sousa & Pinho, ).…”

<b>Regional Differences in the Socio-economic and Built-environment Factors of Vacant House Ratio as a Key Indicator for Spatial Urban Shrinkage</b>

“…Several cities in the United States have shrunken because of long-term industrial transformation (Wiechmann 2012; Schilling and Logan 2008) [8]. Japan also encounters similar kinds of drivers such as declining birth rate and increased concentration of population in major metropolitan areas (Martinez-Fernandez et al 2016) [9]. Generally, most of the causes and effects of urban shrinkage have been clarified, but the causes and effects differ depending on the countries.…”