Types of urbanization and economic growth
ABSTRACT What is the relationship between urbanization and economic growth? Though many scholars have long documented the impact of urbanization on economic growth, others find no relationship has been established between rates of urbanization and rates of growth. While urbanization has typically been theorized as the product of a Harris Todaro push and pull framework that encourages migration to urban areas for economic opportunity, recent works indicate that growth in urban areas stems from several distinct mechanisms. By re conceptualizing urbanization as resulting from two distinct mechanisms natural increase and residual increase, respectively we examine the impact of types of urbanization on economic growth. We find that while urban residual increase is corelated to economic growth, urbanization due to natural births and deaths is not. The results contribute to existing literature by providing an important insight into the factors behind economic growth and the effects of urbanization.