The Political Economy of Large Metropolis Versus the Nation State

Large metropolis are both places and centres of networks controlling larger parts of the economy, developing their own economic dynamics. Among economic geographers, Storper has in particular emphasised the "keys to the city" and the institutional arrangement explaining the rise of productivity and wealth creations of large cities. In many countries, a growing part of the GDP is produced in the large metropolis, with increased productivity gap between the large cities and the rest in the country. Britain is an extreme case where the london South East region is now producing 38% of GDP of the UK.

The paper develops the political economy of large metropolis and its relations with the national economy, including state policy. It builds on research done in Paris, London, Mexico, Sao Paolo and to a lesser extent Istanbul and Dubai. It first develops a previous argument on the importance of the relation between States and cities to understand the political economy of those large metropolis, adapting TIlly's ideas. In some cases, the economic develoment is similar to a "city state" strategy where the bulk of economic development is related to finance, trade, formal and informal, migration, together with property development.  A second case is the making of large metropolis as national champions with massive invesment from the central state in infrastructure, innovation centres, culture, attraction of headquarters.

The paper explores the conflicts between large metropolis and states in the globalizing economies and the question of urban measures and metrics. The urban focus is a fruitful venue to avoid the classic reification of the national level and to question the role of the state in the economy beyond the market making strategies and regulatory role.