TAILIEUCHUNG - A Companion to Urban Economics - Arnott and McMillen - Chapter 4

C H A P T E R F O U R Cross-Country Patterns of Urban Development INTRODUCTION Urban economists love to suggest the following thought experiment to students. Consider a world without cities. More specifically, suppose that the world’s population was randomly distributed across space. | A Companion to Urban Economics Edited by Richard J. Arnott Daniel P. McMillen Copyright 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd CHAPTER FOUR Cross-Country Patterns of Urban Development Stephen Malpezzi Introduction Urban economists love to suggest the following thought experiment to students. Consider a world without cities. More specifically suppose that the world s population was randomly distributed across space. Omitting some totally uninhabitable places such as Antarctica there would be very roughly about 2 ha of land for each person in the world some more arable than others. Suppose in turn that the capital stock was randomly distributed there is very roughly something like 20 000 worth of tangible capital computers tools buildings furniture trucks - all the things we use to make other things per capita. If you were lucky you might find yourself on somewhat fertile land well irrigated in a mild climate with some tools that might help you gather or grow enough food to stave off starvation. If I were unlucky I might be in a less favorable location with capital that is now mostly useless. World GDP would fall from something like 40 trillion steeply toward zero. The survivors of this thought experiment would quickly be on the move banding together and beginning to cluster in more favorable locations. The world s economy would begin to regroup and recover although it would probably take many decades to rebuild a world in any way recognizable. The thought experiment seems bizarre if not silly but it does in fact clearly illustrate the importance of location. The thought experiment sounds so weird mainly because it collapses many millennia of migration capital formation trading and technical change - the processes that underlie our long history of economic development - into a very 56 S. Malpezzi short time frame. Now anyone who reads newspapers or even watches CNN is aware that the level of economic development varies tremendously between countries such as the United

TỪ KHÓA LIÊN QUAN
TAILIEUCHUNG - Chia sẻ tài liệu không giới hạn
Địa chỉ : 444 Hoang Hoa Tham, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Website : tailieuchung.com
Email : tailieuchung20@gmail.com
Tailieuchung.com là thư viện tài liệu trực tuyến, nơi chia sẽ trao đổi hàng triệu tài liệu như luận văn đồ án, sách, giáo trình, đề thi.
Chúng tôi không chịu trách nhiệm liên quan đến các vấn đề bản quyền nội dung tài liệu được thành viên tự nguyện đăng tải lên, nếu phát hiện thấy tài liệu xấu hoặc tài liệu có bản quyền xin hãy email cho chúng tôi.
Đã phát hiện trình chặn quảng cáo AdBlock
Trang web này phụ thuộc vào doanh thu từ số lần hiển thị quảng cáo để tồn tại. Vui lòng tắt trình chặn quảng cáo của bạn hoặc tạm dừng tính năng chặn quảng cáo cho trang web này.