Urban growth and productivity: the case of Greece

Louri, Helen (1988): Urban growth and productivity: the case of Greece. Published in: Urban Studies , Vol. 25, No. 5 (1988): pp. 433-438.

Abstract

The present paper reports an attempt to estimate the role of urbanisation economies in Greek industry. Using a flexible form of production function obtained from a Taylor-series expansion of a polynomial it is estimated that the labour productivity of the manufacturing sector is five per cent higher with each doubling of urban population. The substantial advantages to urban production seem to be at the heart of the urbanisation process that accompanied industrialisation in Greece. The policy implications are that decentralisation policies may be justifiable on regional equity but not on economic efficiency grounds. Selection and promotion of a few urban centres in each region would be a more successful regional policy.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: urbanisation; labour productivity; manufacturing
• Subjects: R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R3 - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location; D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D24 - Production ; Cost ; Capital ; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity ; Capacity

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