Real Estate Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
3-2005
Publication Source
Journal of Urban Economics
Volume
57
Issue
2
Start Page
343
Last Page
370
DOI
10.1016/j.jue.2004.12.002
Abstract
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.
Copyright/Permission Statement
© 2005. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Keywords
functional specialisation, cities, headquarters, business services
Recommended Citation
Duranton, G., & Puga, D. (2005). From Sectoral to Functional Urban Specialisation. Journal of Urban Economics, 57 (2), 343-370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2004.12.002
Date Posted: 27 November 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
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.