Are increasing urbanisation and inequalities symptoms of growth?

Abstract

Modern economic growth is apparently characterized by rising income inequalities and increasing urbanisation. By considering both these factors as the two-pronged expression (personal and spatial) of concentration of resources within countries, this paper has focused on how they are associated with the process of economic development. From the perspective of the current policy debate on whether countries should foster increasing spatial concentration even at the risk of higher inequalities, we have briefly revised the main theories interrelating inequality, urbanisation and economic growth. We have analysed the main stylized facts of the association between these variables by using a panel of 51 countries over the period 1970-2007.