From Sectoral to Functional Urban Specialisation

27 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2001

See all articles by Gilles Duranton

Gilles Duranton

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Diego Puga

IMDEA Social Sciences; University of Toronto - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: September 2001

Abstract

We document and then develop a model explaining and relating changes in firms' organization and in urban structure. Sharing of business services by headquarters and of sector-specific intermediates by production plants within a city reduces costs, while congestion increases with city size. A fall in the costs of remote management leads to a shift in urban structure, from a configuration where cities specialize by sector and host integrated headquarters and production plants, to a configuration where cities specialize by function, with headquarters from different sectors and business services clustered in a few large cities and production plants from each sector clustered in smaller separate cities.

Keywords: Functional specialisation, cities, business services, headquarters

JEL Classification: L23, R12, R30

Suggested Citation

Duranton, Gilles and Puga, Diego, From Sectoral to Functional Urban Specialisation (September 2001). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=285959

Gilles Duranton (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Geography and Environment ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
+44 20 7955 7604 (Phone)
+44 20 7955 7412 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Diego Puga

IMDEA Social Sciences ( email )

Calle Veláquez 76
Madrid, 28001
Spain

University of Toronto - Department of Economics ( email )

150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7
Canada
416-978-4375 (Phone)
416-978-6713 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://dpuga.economics.utoronto.ca/

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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