Abstract

Small and medium-sized cities have been experiencing renewed interest within policy and research contexts, which is slowly reversing a tradition of relative neglect due to the long-standing focus on large cities. This focus is fuelled by a dominant academic and popular literature stressing and selling the idea of an 'Urban Triumph', and economic theories all stress the importance of agglomeration economies for economic growth. However, if one looks a bit closer, one can notice that in many parts of Europe, actual urban dynamics are in marked contrast with the bourgeoning literature stressing the importance of agglomeration for economic growth. In fact, many small and medium-sized cities are performing quite well, and sometimes even better than their larger counterparts. In this seminar, Evert Meijers will explore possible explanations for this trend, thereby focusing on concepts such as 'city network externalities', 'borrowed size' and 'agglomeration shadows'.