Suburbs for nations? Some interdisciplinary connections on the suburban economy

Abstract

This paper reviews the (primarily North American and European) literature for signs of the economic significance of suburbs. It has been common to view suburbs as economically inert. Yet as national economies have continued to grow, the bulk of urbanisation and national economic activity has been suburban. If suburbs have been important in quantitative terms to the growth of national economies, it is less clear what if any qualitative contribution suburbs have made to national economies. There is, for example, considerable uncertainty over whether the suburban economy possesses the sorts of agglomeration economies that sustain central cities. Moreover, whilst segments of what have been refer..