Cities, Productivity, and Quality of Life
Abstract
Technological changes and improved electronic communications seem, paradoxically, to be making cities more, rather than less, important. There is a strong correlation between urbanization and economic development across countries, and within-country evidence suggests that productivity rises in dense agglomerations. But urban economic advantages are often offset by the perennial urban curses of crime, congestion and contagious disease. The past history of the developed world suggests that these problems require more capable governments that use a combination of economic and engineering solutions. Though the scope of urban challenges can make remaining rural seem attractive, agrarian poverty has typically also been quite costly.
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Concentrating human populations within cities transforms the economies of scale in human interactions, producing higher average incomes and enabling a wide array of novel social benefits as urban systems advance, which in turn enable further growth and help to drive rural-urban migration.
“Concentrating human populations within cities transforms the economies of scale in human interactions, producing higher average incomes and enabling a wide array of novel social benefits as urban systems advance (98, 99), which in turn enable further growth and help to drive rural–urban migration (100, 101).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [99]
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Ellis, E. C., Kaplan, J. O., Fuller, D. Q., Vavrus, S., Klein Goldewijk, K., & Verburg, P. H. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1217241110 · Cited by 812 · see citing works
Elementary processes governing the evolution of road networks
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- Authors
- Glaeser, E.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Glaeser, Edward
- ORCID
- Glaeser, Edward
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2011-07-29
- Volume
- 333
- Issue
- 6042
- Pages
- 592-594
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2051834685
- Cited by
- 280
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 22.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Development and Societal Issues
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Global Urban Networks and Dynamics
- Keywords
- urbanization, urban productivity, quality of life, agglomeration economies, urban density, crime, traffic congestion, infectious diseases, urban governance, rural poverty, economic development
- MeSH terms
- Cities, Crime, Developing Countries, Environment, Government, Humans, Income, Poverty, Public Health, Quality of Life, Urban Health, Urban Population, Urbanization, Gross Domestic Product
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