THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF URBAN GROWTH: CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AIR POLLUTION, AND CITY SIZE

Abstract

This study presents a quantitative assessment of the environmental consequences of urbanization in general and city bigness in particular in the context of the process of economic development. We focus attention on the relationship between ambient air quality and city size, and how it might differ between urban areas of developed and developing countries. First, the air pollution-city size relationship is characterized theoretically and explored empirically using ambient air quality data for various urban zones across an international sample of cities. While we find statistically significant relationships between pollution and city size, interesting developed-developing country differences emerge. Next, the relationship is re-estimated using contextual development covariates. Results show that the positive association between poor air quality and city size is not inevitable and tends to diminish with economic growth and the capacity for undertaking pollution abatement measures. It follows that restricting urban growth in developing countries may be neither necessary nor sufficient for achieving environmental gains.

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