title: City size distributions and spatial economic change.
abstract: "The concept of the city size distribution is criticized for its lack of consideration of the effects of interurban interdependencies on the growth of cities.  Theoretical justifications for the rank-size relationship have the same shortcomings, and an empirical study reveals that there is little correlation between deviations from rank-size distributions and national economic and social characteristics.  Thus arguments suggesting a close correspondence between city size distributions and the level of development of a country, irrespective of intranational variations in city location and socioeconomic characteristics, seem to have little foundation."  (summary in FRE, ITA, JPN, )
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sheppard
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D004467:Economics; D005843:Geography; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011156:Population Density; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D014507:Urbanization
keywords: Demographic Factors; Economic Development; Economic Factors; Geographic Factors; Population; Population Characteristics; Population Dynamics; Population Size; Socioeconomic Factors; Spatial Distribution; Urban Population; Urban Spatial Distribution; Urbanization; World