Case study: New York

A menudo se critica a los economistas por no hacer estudios de caso. He
aquí un contraejemplo que puede interesarle a quién este haciendo economía
urbana... o una tesina de historia económica.

"Urban Colossus: Why is New York America's Largest City?"

BY: EDWARD L. GLAESER
Harvard University
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=732423
Date: June 2005

ABSTRACT:
New York has been remarkably successful relative to any other large city
outside of the sunbelt and it remains the nation's premier metropolis. What
accounts for New York's rise and continuing success? The rise of New York in
the early nineteenth century is the result of technological changes that
moved ocean shipping from a point-to-point system to a hub and spoke system;
New York's geography made it the natural hub of this system. Manufacturing
then centered in New York because the hub of a transport system is, in many
cases, the ideal place to transform raw materials into finished goods. This
initial dominance was entrenched by New York's role as the hub for
immigration. In the late 20th century, New York's survival is based almost
entirely on finance and business services, which are also legacies of the
port. In this period, New York's role as a hub still matters, but it is far
less important than the edge that density and agglomeration give to the
acquisition of knowledge.