Does New Economic Geography Faithfully Describe Reality?

         
Author Name TABUCHI Takatoshi  (Faculty Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. October 2012 12-E-071
Research Project Theory and Empirics of Urban Growth and Spatial Structure
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Abstract

This paper shows that new economic geography models are capable of simulating the real-world tendency for urban agglomeration to the primate city. It is often observed that while regional populations were dispersed in early times, they have been increasingly concentrated into one capital region over recent years. The present paper thus demonstrates that multi-region, new economic geography models are able to simulate the real-world population distribution trends witnessed over the past few centuries.