Cross-sectional evolution of the US city size distribution

We report nonparametrically estimated stochastic transition kernels for the evolution of the distribution of U,S. metropolitan area populations, for t he period 1900 to 1990. These suggest a fair amount of uniformity in the pa tterns of mobility during the study period. The distribution of city size i s predominantly characterised by persistence. Additional kernel estimates d o not reveal any stark differences in intra-region mobility patterns. We ch aracterise the nature of intra-size distribution dynamics by means of measu res that do not require discretisation of the city size distribution. We em ploy these measures to study the degree of mobility within the U.S. city si ze distribution and, separately, within regional and urban subsystems. We f ind that different regions show different degrees of intra-distribution mob ility. Second-tier cities show more mobility than top-tier cities, (C) 2001 Academic Press.