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Trade and institutions: explaining urban giants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2019

Fabien Candau Open the ORCID record for Fabien Candau [Opens in a new window]  and
Tchapo Gbandi
Fabien Candau*
Affiliation:
Center for the Analysis of Trade and Economic Transition, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Pau, France
Tchapo Gbandi
Affiliation:
Center for the Analysis of Trade and Economic Transition, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Pau, France
*
*Corresponding author. Email: fabien.candau@univ-pau.fr
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Abstract

By analyzing the population growth at the top of the urban hierarchy, we test two hypotheses explaining the rise of mega-cities: trade and political institutions. We find that democratic institutions are the main factor behind the concentration of a nation's urban population in the main city. Contrary to the literature, we find that extractive institutions reduce the size of the biggest city.

Keywords

Urban primacydemocracymarket access
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 6 , December 2019 , pp. 1017 - 1035
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2019 

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