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作者

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS,Vol.98,P.139-157

语言

英文

关键字

City origins; Economic geography; Europe; GROWTH; CITIES; TRADE; REVOLUTION; LOCATION

作者单位

[Bosker, Maarten] Erasmus Univ, CEPR, Tinbergen Inst, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands. [Bosker, Maarten; Buringh, Eltjo] Univ Utrecht, NL-3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands. Bosker, M (reprint author), Erasmus Univ, CEPR, Tinbergen Inst, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands.; Bosker, M (reprint author), Univ Utrecht, NL-3508 TC Utrecht, Netherlands. E-Mail: basker@ese.eur.nl

摘要

Cities are the focal points of the world economy. This paper sheds new empirical light on their origins. Using a new dataset covering over 250,000 randomly selected potential city locations, and all actual cities during the period 800-1800, we disentangle the different roles of geography in shaping today's European city system. We find that a location's physical geography characteristics are the dominant determinants of its urban chances. Preferential location for water- or land-based transportation is a particularly important city seed. In addition, a location's position relative to already-existing cities matters for its urban chances. Interestingly, it does so in a way corresponding to predictions from economic geography theory. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.