From Sectoral to Functional Urban Specialisation

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Real Estate Papers
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functional specialisation
cities
headquarters
business services
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Real Estate
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Duranton, Gilles
Puga, Diego
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Striking evidence is presented of a previously unremarked transformation of urban structure from mainly sectoral to mainly functional specialisation. We offer an explanation showing that this transformation is inextricably interrelated with changes in firms' organisation. A greater variety of business services for headquarters and of sector-specific intermediates for production plants within a city reduces costs, while congestion increases with city size. A fall in the costs of remote management leads to a transformation of the equilibrium urban and industrial structure. Cities shift from specialising by sector—with integrated headquarters and plants—to specialising mainly by function—with headquarters and business services clustered in larger cities, and plants clustered in smaller cities.

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2005-03-01
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Journal of Urban Economics
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At the time of publication, author Gilles Duranton was affiliated with the London School of Economics. Currently (September, 2016), he is a faculty member at the Real Estate Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
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