Urban Accounting and Welfare

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Desmet, Klaus; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban
• 署名单位: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.6.2296
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 2296-2327
• 关键词: zipfs law; cities; GROWTH; EMPLOYMENT; location; density

摘要

We use a simple theory of a system of cities to decompose the determinants of the city size distribution into three main components: efficiency, amenities, and frictions. Higher efficiency and better amenities lead to larger cities but also to greater frictions through congestion and other negative effects of agglomeration. Using data on MSAs in the United States, we estimate these city characteristics. Eliminating variation in any of them leads to large population reallocations, but modest welfare effects. We apply the same methodology to Chinese cities and find welfare effects that are many times larger than those in the US.