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《The Area and Population of Cities .pdf》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。
1、AmericanEconomicReview101(August2011):2205–2225http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.101.5.2205TheAreaandPopulationofCities:NewInsights†fromaDifferentPerspectiveonCitiesByHernÁnD.Rozenfeld,DiegoRybski,XavierGabaix,andHernÁnA.Makse*Thispaperbuildsonarecentlyproposedalgori
2、thmtoconstructcitiesbasedongeographicalfeaturesofhigh-qualitymicrodata(HernánD.Rozenfeldetal.2008),ratherthaninformativebutsomewhatarbitrarylegaloradministrativedefinitions.Itallowsustotakeafreshlookatkeyquantitiesinurbaneconomics,namelythepopu-lationandtheareaofcities.WefindthatZipf
3、’slawforpopulationholdsquitewell,andwellbelowtheveryuppertailofthecitysizedistribution,whereithadbeenshowntoholdtoagooddegreeofapproximation(GabaixandYannisM.Ioannides2004).Wealsofindthatthedistributionofcityareasfollowsapowerlaw,withanexponentclosetoone,theZipfvalue.Thesefindingshel
4、pconstrainfurthertheoriesofcitiesandtheoriesofgeography.Akeydifficultyinstudyingcitiesisfindingapracticalwaytodefinethem(GeorgeK.Zipf1949;PaulKrugman1996;JonathanEatonandZviEckstein1997;LindaHarrisDobkinsandIoannides2001;JanEeckhout2004;KwokTongSoo2005;Batty2006).Acanonicalmethodinvo
5、lvesdefiningMetropolitanStatisticalAreas(MSAs)obtainedintheUnitedStatesfromtheOfficeofManagementandBudgetandavail-ablefromtheUSCensusBureau(2009).MSAsaredefinedforeachmajoragglomer-ationandattempttocapturetheirextentbymergingadministrativelydefinedentities,countiesintheUS,basedonthei
6、rsocialoreconomicties(othercountriesusesimilarcriteria).Forinstance,theMSAofBoston,MA,includesnotonlytheadministrativeunitofBoston,butalsoadjacentCambridge.MSAsderivetheirappealfromastrongeconomiclogic,buttheirconstructionrequiresqualitativeanalysisandisverytime-consuming.Therefore,M
7、SAshavebeenconstructedonlyforthe276mostpopulatedcitiesintheUS,andthecorrespondingZipf’slawhasbeendocumentedonlyfortheuppertailofthedistribution(GabaixandIoannides2004;Soo2005).TwomainalternativestotheMSAshavebeenproposedintheliterature.Onemethodistouseadministrativeorlegalbordersofci
8、tiestodefine
