Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics

Foreword

J. Vernon Henderson

Jacques-François Thisse Editors¹

¹The second editor thanks the Ministère de l’éducation, de la recherche et de la formation (Communauté française de Belgique), Convention 00/05-262, for financial support

A salient feature of the spatial economy is the extreme variation in land use intensity. This may be illustrated by contrasting rural areas and small towns in the American Plains with megalopolises, such as New York or Tokyo that accommodate a huge range of consumption and production activities. In the European Union, the top 38 cities cover 0.6% of its territory and, in 2000, accommodate about 25% of its population and about 30% of its GDP. In Japan, the economy is very much dominated by its core regions, formed ...