Gibrat's law and the British Industrial Revolution

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines Gibrat’s law in England and Wales between 1801 and 1911 using a unique data set covering the entire settlement size distribution. We find that Gibrat’s law broadly holds even in the face of population doubling every fifty years, an industrial and transport trevolution, and the absence of zoning laws to constrain growth. The result is strongest for the later period, and in counties most affected by the industrial revolution. The exception were villages in areas bypassed by the industrial revolution. We argue that agglomeration externalities balanced urban disamenities such as commuting costs and poor living conditions to ensure steady growth of many places, rather than exceptional growth of few.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: School of Economics Discussion Papers ; No. 1314

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Regional and Urban History: Europe: Pre-1913 ; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity
• Subject: Gibrat’s law ; city-size distribution ; industrial revolution

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Klein, Alexander ; Leunig, Tim
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Kent, School of Economics
• (where): Canterbury
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/105586
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET