A multi-level and multi-dimensional approach: world cities’ system through multinational firms’ and cities networks

Peer Reviewe

The network structure of city-firm relations

How are economic activities linked to geographic locations? To answer this question, we use a data-driven approach that builds on the information about location, ownership and economic activities of the world's 3,000 largest firms and their almost one million subsidiaries. From this information we generate a bipartite network of cities linked to economic activities. Analysing the structure of this network, we find striking similarities with nested networks observed in ecology, where links represent mutualistic interactions between species. This motivates us to apply ecological indicators to identify the unbalanced deployment of economic activities. Such deployment can lead to an over-representation of specific economic sectors in a given city, and poses a significant thread for the city's future especially in times when the over-represented activities face economic uncertainties. If we compare our analysis with external rankings about the quality of life in a city, we find that the nested structure of the city-firm network also reflects such information about the quality of life, which can usually be assessed only via dedicated survey-based indicators.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

COVID-19 reveals the systemic nature of urban health globally

Statement by the scientific committee* of the International Science Council’s Programme on Urban Health and Wellbeing, on critical elements of urban health action in response to the epidemic

A multi-level and multi-dimensional approach: world cities’ system through multinational firms’ and cities networks

Peer Reviewe

Opening the Black Box of Agglomeration Economies for Measuring Cities' Competitiveness through International Firm Networks

The ability of cities to operate in global networks is usually measured according to their central position within multinational firm linkages. These measures are often used at the interurban level and neglect the intraurban processes of multiplier effects. The present study demonstrates that this affects the measurement of city centrality in business networks. Intraurban capabilities of interaction are considered in the measurement of interurban indices. The study is based on hypothetical networks at a micro level between long-range links and it mobilises processes as agglomeration economies, social capital developments and transaction costs. These processes at the intraurban level strengthen the efficiency of interurban linkages. It is suggested that the indices used to measure city centrality should include these local effects. Applied to a small sample of six firm networks, the methodology shows advantages for emerging large metropolises, but insufficient local effects for specialised clusters. The multilevel approach offers improved perspectives for the comparison of city centralities.