城市化進(jìn)程和經(jīng)濟增長外文文獻(xiàn)翻譯

1、文獻(xiàn)出處 文獻(xiàn)出處：Henderson V. The urbanization process and economic growth: The so-what question [J]. Journal of Economic Growth, 2003, 8(1): 47-71.原文 原文The Urbanization Process and Economic Growth:The So-What QuestionVERNON HE

2、NDERSONThere is an extensive literature on the urbanization process looking at both urbanization and urban concentration, asking whether and when there is under or over-urbanization or under or over urban concentration.

3、Writers argue that national government policies and non-democratic institutions promote excessive concentration-the extent to which the urban population of a country is concentrated in one or two major metropolitan areas

4、-except in former planned economies where migration restrictions are enforced. These literatures assume that there is an optimal level of urbanization or an optimal level of urban concentration, but no research to date h

5、as quantitatively examined the assumption and asked the basic “so-what“ question-how great are the economic losses from significant deviations from any optimal degrees of urban concentration or rates of urbanization? Thi

6、s paper shows that (1) there is a best degree of urban concentration, in terms of maximizing productivity growth (2) that best degree varies with the level of development and country size, and (3) over or under-concentra

7、tion can be very costly in terms of productivity growth. The paper shows also that productivity growth is not strongly affected by urbanization per se. Rapid urbanization has often occurred in the face of low or negative

8、 economic growth over some decades. Moreover, urbanization is a transitory phenomenon where many countries development (Ofer, 1977; Fallenbuchl, 1977). The more extensive literature on the degree of urban concentration a

9、nd changes in that degree which occurs as urbanization and growth proceed has a variety of strands. Countries and international policy officials worry about whether key cities are too big or too small (Renaud, 1981; UN,

10、1993; WDR, 2000) and over the years various countries such as Egypt, Brazil, Korea, Mexico, and China have pursued medium size city programs designed to forestall the growth of larger cities (Henderson, 1988; Ades and Gl

11、aeser, 1995). International agencies presume that many of the world's mega-cities are overpopulated, at considerable cost to those economies. The UN (1993) asks how bad “the negative factors associated with very larg

12、e cities“ need to get “before [it is in the] self interest of those in control to encourage development of alternative centers.“ The same report warns of “unbalanced urban hierarchies“ and the crime, congestion and socia

13、l inequality in mega-cities. The World Development Report (2000) has a chapter (7) on the grim life of people in mega-cities in developing countries. And the Economist in one of its special surveys has posed the question

14、 directly (July 29, 1995): Do the splendors of large cities outweigh their dark side? The Effects of Urban Concentration on Growth Development In this section, I examine the effect of urban concentration on productivity

15、growth. I start with urban concentration, or primacy, because that examination yields the key results. The examination also develops the methodology that is then applied to the examination of the effect of urbanization o

16、n growth. The first issue is how to measure urban concentration. There are three measures that people use. First, Wheaton and Shishido (1981) and Henderson (1988) use the standard Hirschman-Herfindahl index of concentrat