Cities and Agglomeration Externalities

Abstract

Cities are home to agglomeration externalities, which, interacting with knowledge externalities, drive economic growth during structural transformation of nations. Yet policy-makers in several developing countries in the past seemed to have had an anti-urban bias. This is primarily due to the lack of appreciation of externalities of cities and their role in facilitating economic growth and generating resources for economic development, including urban and rural development. Recognizing the critical need of Asian countries to harness the power of agglomeration externalities in cities for growth, this article examines the nature and sources of agglomeration externalities and derives lessons for the formulation of urban public policy in the urbanizing countries of Asia, including India. 城市是集聚外部性的温床，并与知识外部性在国家结构转型过程中推动经济增长发生相互作用。然而，几个发展中国家的政策制定者在过去一段时期里似乎有反城市偏见。这主要是由于缺乏对城市外部性及其在促进经济增长、为经济发展创造资源等方面的认知，包括在城市和农村发展中的作用。鉴于亚洲国家迫切需要利用集聚外部性的力量促进城市增长，本文探讨了集聚外部性的本质和来源，并为包括印度在内的正在经历城镇化的亚洲国家制定城市公共政策总结了经验教训。