Publication: Consumption Cities versus Production Cities: New Considerations and Evidence
Date
2022-06
ISSN
Published
2022-06
Author(s)
Abstract
Cities dramatically vary in their
sectoral composition across the world, possibly lending
credence to the theory that some cities are production
cities with high employment shares of urban tradables while
others are consumption cities with high employment shares of
urban non-tradables. A model of structural change highlights
three paths leading to the rise of consumption cities:
resource rents from exporting fuels and mining products,
agricultural exports, and premature deindustrialization.
These findings appear to be corroborated using both country-
and city-level data. Compared to cities in industrialized
countries, cities of similar sizes in resource-rich and
deindustrializing countries have lower shares of employment
in manufacturing, tradable services, and the formal sector,
and higher shares of employment in non-tradables and the
informal sector. Results on the construction of “vanitous”
tall buildings provide additional evidence on the
relationship between resource exports and consumption
cities. Finally, the evidence suggests that having mostly
consumption cities might have economic implications for a country.
Citation
“Jedwab, Remi; Ianchovichina, Elena; Haslop, Federico. 2022. Consumption Cities versus Production Cities : New Considerations and Evidence. Policy Research Working Paper;10105. © Washington, DC : World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37624 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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