Growth in Australian cities

This paper is an empirical investigation of the determinants of city growth in Australia from 1981 to 1991. Our basic goal is to explain the populatio n and labour force growth of a cross-section of cities in the time period u sing variables representing the initial characteristics of cities. While we find that city growth is negatively correlated with initial size. governme nt sector employment and a city's level of specialization, we also find it to be positively correlated with various measures for the degree of human c apital investment in the city. Our results. while simple and non-structural , mirror the conclusions of studies in the US indicating the importance of studying city level growth in order to understand economy-wide growth.