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Main Authors: Gravier, Julie, Barthelemy, Marc
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03263
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author Gravier, Julie
Barthelemy, Marc
author_facet Gravier, Julie
Barthelemy, Marc
contents Contemporary literature on the dynamics of economic activities in growing cities mainly focused on a few years or decades time frames. Using a new geo-historical database constructed from historical directories with about 1 million entries, we present a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of activities in a major city, Paris, over almost a century (1829-1907). Our analysis suggests that activities that accompany city growth can be classified in different categories according to their dynamics and their scaling with population: (i) linear for everyday needs of residents (food stores, clothing retailers, health care practitioners), (ii) sublinear for public services (legal, administrative, educational), (iii) superlinear for the city's specific features (passing fads, specialization, timely needs). The dynamics of these activities is in addition very sensitive to historical perturbations such as large scale public works or political conflicts. These results shed light on the evolution of activities, a crucial component of growing cities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_03263
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A typology of activities over a century of urban growth
Gravier, Julie
Barthelemy, Marc
Physics and Society
Contemporary literature on the dynamics of economic activities in growing cities mainly focused on a few years or decades time frames. Using a new geo-historical database constructed from historical directories with about 1 million entries, we present a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of activities in a major city, Paris, over almost a century (1829-1907). Our analysis suggests that activities that accompany city growth can be classified in different categories according to their dynamics and their scaling with population: (i) linear for everyday needs of residents (food stores, clothing retailers, health care practitioners), (ii) sublinear for public services (legal, administrative, educational), (iii) superlinear for the city's specific features (passing fads, specialization, timely needs). The dynamics of these activities is in addition very sensitive to historical perturbations such as large scale public works or political conflicts. These results shed light on the evolution of activities, a crucial component of growing cities.
title A typology of activities over a century of urban growth
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03263