Urbanization in industrialized countries: Appearances are deceptive

Arbeitspapier

This study introduces the urbanicity index of employment. Unlike traditional measures of urbanization (e.g., urbanization rate), the urbanicity index is distance-based and accounts for the scale aspect as well as the concentration aspect of urbanization. The concentration aspect can be decomposed into the intersectoral mobility of employment and the spatial mobility of sectors. These two types of mobility can be further factorized into the contributions of the various sectors of the economy. To demonstrate the usefulness of the urbanicity index, the present paper applies it to German administrative employment data. The analysis reveals that, contrary to what Germany's rather stagnant urbanization rates seem to imply, strong urbanization trends have occurred. Employees switched from rural sectors to urban sectors that expanded their rural production sites.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Research Papers in Economics ; No. 4/21

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: index ; measurement ; migration ; rural-to-urban ; urbanicity

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Von Auer, Ludwig ; Trede, Mark
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Universität Trier, Fachbereich IV - Volkswirtschaftslehre
• (where): Trier
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/272350
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET