Cities, Regions And The Decline Of Transport Costs

"The theoretical framework of urban and regional economics is built ontransportation costs for manufactured goods. But over the twentieth century, the costs of moving these goods have declined by over 90% in real terms, and there is little reason to doubt that this decline will continue. Moreover, technological change has eliminated theimportance of fixed infrastructure transport (rail and water) that played a critical role in creating natural urban centres. In this article, the authors document this decline and exploreseveral simple implications of a world where it is essentially free to move goods, but expensive to move people." [Editor's note: The link below is to a 1MB PDF document.]