A Crowded City: Agglomeration and Mobility in Urban Development

This paper examines whether interventions that improve density, mobility and connectivity can release a city鈥檚 potential

Abstract

When agglomeration economies are low and commuting costs are high, employment and residence within cities is matched at a very local level 鈥� giving rise to a featureless 鈥淐rowded City鈥� in which neighborhoods look alike and all have mixed land use with both jobs and homes. This structure motivates the authors鈥� analytic framework, which examines whether mobility and connectivity are constraining today鈥檚 rapidly growing developing country cities and whether interventions that improve density, mobility, and connectivity can release a city鈥檚 development potential, including in terms of environmental quality and climate.

The paper also examines both formation of neighborhoods across the city as well as land use and size within a neighborhood.

This paper is an output of the Research on Growth and Urbanisation in Low Income Countries programme

Citation

Gunnar S. Eskeland and Somik V. Lall (2015) A Crowded City: Agglomeration and Mobility in Urban Development.

Updates to this page

Published 15 October 2017