Scaling in Human Societies

This article is Version 2. Version 1 can be found here. [Read More]

As we discuss scaling in human societies, the question naturally arises of what factors will eventually limit growth. [Read More]

In another post, we consider the theoretical causes for agglomeration economies in cities, which are the tendency for some per-capita socioeconomic quantities, such as wages and output per capita, to increase with city size. In this post, we will consider empirically results on how socioeconomic quantities scale with city size.... [Read More]

It is well-known that larger cities produce wealth through mechanisms known as agglomeration economies, which can be regarded as mechanisms by which large collections of people, who can easily travel and trade amongst each other, provide economic advantages over small collections. In this post, we will focus on the theoretical... [Read More]

Marchetti’s constant, discussed in greater detail on another page, indicates that the average person spends about an hour per day travelling. If this figure is taken precisely, it indicates that all improvements in transportation speed should manifest themselves as greater amounts of travel rather than saved time. [Read More]