The development of the African system of cities

Henderson, J. Vernon ORCID: 0000-0002-0985-9415 and Kriticos, Sebastian (2018) The development of the African system of cities. Annual Review of Economics, 10. pp. 287-314. ISSN 1941-1383

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Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa has urbanised at tremendous speed over the last half century, in a process that has dramatically reshaped the economic and spatial profile of the region. Simultaneously, it has challenged much of the conventional empirical wisdom about how and why people move to cities. As we show in this article, the traditional view that countries urbanise alongside struc-tural transformation is challenged in Africa, where urbanisation occurs despite low productivity in agriculture, very limited industrialisation, and a high share of primary sector employment across the urban hierarchy. There appear to be large household income gaps between urban and rural areas inducing migration, and these income premiums apply equally well to farm and non-farm families. Looking across the urban hierarchy, we also discuss how urban primacy can be problematic for economic growth in Africa, how secondary cities are lagging in industrial development, and how growth of employment in tradable services may signal a different path to structural transformation in Africa.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.annualreviews.org/loi/economics
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD100 Land Use
Date Deposited:	15 Dec 2017 15:36
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 21:32
Funders:	World Bank, UK Department for International Development
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86349

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