Volume 38 - Article 50 | Pages 1535–1576 
A regional perspective on the economic determinants of urban transition in 19th-century France
Date received: | 04 May 2017 |
Date published: | 03 May 2018 |
Word count: | 7357 |
Keywords: | 19th century, demographic transition, economic development, France, migration, urban transition |
DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2018.38.50 |
Additional files: | readme.38-50 (text file, 9 kB) |
demographic-research.38-50 (zip file, 218 kB) | |
Abstract
Background: Past analyses lead to contradictory results as to whether migration, demographic transition, or economic development is the main driver of urban transition. Results depend heavily on the analytical strategy.
Objective: This paper’s aim is to identify different profiles of economic activity and their effect on urban transition over the 19th century in France to test three hypotheses: economic development acts on urban transition through migration; political and economic shocks better explain variations in the migration component of urbanisation than its natural components; the diffusion of the urban growth model of large cities explains urban transition in peripheral areas.
Methods: The paper uses census data from 80 French counties – excluding Paris, Corsica, and counties disputed by Germany and Italy – for 1856 to 1891. Each component of urbanisation at county level is regressed on employment structure, controlling for neighbouring urbanisation and for distance to Paris and nearest large city.
Results: Results confirm conclusions for Sweden and Belgium demonstrating that migration drove 19th-century urban transition. The migration component of urban transition is far more sensitive to employment structure and to political and economic instability than the natural components. The diffusion effect is marginal.
Conclusions: Results concur with the hypothesis that the redistribution of economic production through migration, and not the demographic transition, drove the urban transition.
Contribution: The relationship between economic development and urban transition is assessed through the interaction of employment profile and period. Similar methodology could be used to analyse urban transition in contemporary low- and middle-income countries.
Author's Affiliation
Philippe Bocquier - Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Sandra Bree - Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes, France
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
»
Human capital on the move: Education as a determinant of internal migration in selected INDEPTH surveillance populations in Africa
Volume 34 - Article 30
»
Which transition comes first? Urban and demographic transitions in Belgium and Sweden
Volume 33 - Article 48
»
Circular migration patterns and determinants in Nairobi slum settlements
Volume 23 - Article 20
»
World Urbanization Prospects: an alternative to the UN model of projection compatible with the mobility transition theory
Volume 12 - Article 9
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
»
Which transition comes first? Urban and demographic transitions in Belgium and Sweden
Volume 33 - Article 48 | Keywords: demographic transition, economic development, migration, urban transition
»
Mortality decline and reproductive change during the Dutch demographic transition: Revisiting a traditional debate with new data
Volume 27 - Article 11 | Keywords: 19th century, demographic transition
»
Family size and intergenerational social mobility during the fertility transition: Evidence of resource dilution from the city of Antwerp in nineteenth century Belgium
Volume 24 - Article 14 | Keywords: 19th century, demographic transition
»
World population aging as a function of period demographic conditions
Volume 48 - Article 13 | Keywords: demographic transition
»
The question of the human mortality plateau: Contrasting insights by longevity pioneers
Volume 48 - Article 11 | Keywords: France
Articles
Citations
Cited References: 37
»View the references of this article
Download to Citation Manager
Similar Articles
PubMed
»Articles by Philippe Bocquier
Google Scholar
»Articles by Philippe Bocquier