Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026
06:48
Breakfast Habits among Schoolchildren in the City of Uruguaiana, Brazil
Published on: July 29, 2020
5.0K
Scaling trajectories of cities
1The Institute for Analytical Sociology, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, SE-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden marc.keuschnigg@liu.se.
Summary
Urban scaling research shows larger cities have higher outputs. However, only dominant cities exhibit robust superlinear growth trajectories as their populations increase.
Area of Science:
- Urban economics
- Economic geography
- Spatial economics
Background:
- Urban scaling theory posits that agglomeration effects lead to superlinear scaling in cross-sectional data.
- This paradigm predicts parallel superlinear growth trajectories for individual cities over time, a prediction yet to be rigorously tested.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically test the dynamic scaling predictions of urban scaling theory.
- To investigate the relationship between city size, population growth, and per capita wages in Swedish labor market areas.
Main Methods:
- Utilized geocoded microdata for 73 Swedish labor market areas from 1990-2012.
- Approximated the city-size effect on per capita wage to analyze urban scaling dynamics.
Main Results:
- Confirmed a superlinear scaling regime for all Swedish agglomerations.
- Demonstrated that superlinear growth trajectories are robust primarily for cities holding dominant positions in the urban hierarchy.
- Observed a 'rich-get-richer' dynamic at the system level.
Conclusions:
- The study validates the superlinear scaling of urban agglomerations in Sweden.
- Dynamic superlinear growth is contingent on a city's hierarchical position, not universal.
- Findings highlight the importance of urban hierarchy in understanding city growth dynamics.
Related Concept Videos
02:41pH Scale
79.0K
Hydronium and hydroxide ions are present both in pure water and in all aqueous solutions, and their concentrations are inversely proportional as determined by the ion product of water (Kw). The concentrations of these ions in a solution are often critical determinants of the solution’s properties and the chemical behaviors of its other solutes. Two different solutions can differ in their hydronium or hydroxide ion concentrations by a million, billion, or even trillion times. A common means of...
79.0K
01:26Scaling
570
In designing and analyzing filters, resonant circuits, or circuit analysis at large, working with standard element values like 1 ohm, 1 henry, or 1 farad can be convenient before scaling these values to more realistic figures. This approach is widely utilized by not employing realistic element values in numerous examples and problems; it simplifies mastering circuit analysis through convenient component values. The complexity of calculations is thereby reduced, with the understanding that...
570
01:22Thermometers and Temperature Scales
7.2K
Any physical property that depends consistently and reproducibly on temperature can be used as the basis of a thermometer. For example, volume increases with temperature for most substances. This property is the basis for the common alcohol thermometer and the original mercury thermometers. Other properties used to measure temperature include electrical resistance, color, and the emission of infrared radiation.
As many physical properties depend on temperature, the variety of thermometers is...
As many physical properties depend on temperature, the variety of thermometers is...
7.2K
01:22Gas Thermometers and the Kelvin Scale
6.1K
The definition of temperature in terms of molecular motion suggests that there should be a lowest possible temperature, where the average kinetic energy of molecules is zero (or the minimum allowed by quantum mechanics). Experiments confirm the existence of such a temperature, called absolute zero. An absolute temperature scale is one whose zero point is absolute zero. Such scales are convenient in science because several physical quantities, such as the volume of an ideal gas, are directly...
6.1K
01:50Global Climate Change
28.8K
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.
28.8K
02:32Variation: Normal Distribution, Range, and Standard Deviation
27.0K
In the field of psychology, there are several ways to organize measurements of a trait, feature, or characteristic (i.e., variables). Qualitative data, such as ethnicity, can be tabulated into a frequency count to provide information about the proportion, as well as the variety of groups in a sample or population. On the other hand, researchers can perform a wider set of calculations on quantitative data. The mean, mode, and median, for instance, are central tendency measures to identify a...
27.0K