This paper studies population and employment growth of Korean cities in the period of 1975-2015. I document that urban growth patterns in the first 20 years of 1975-1995 are different from those in the recent 20 years of 1995- 2015. First, Zipf’s law did not hold in the first period while the distribution of city sizes have become linear lately. Second, the population growth looks independent from city sizes in the second period. In 1975-1995, on the other hands, Gibrat’s law does not hold as an inverse U pattern appears. In sum, the growth patterns in the second period support random growth theory.

Then, I focus on the period of 1995-2015 to examine market access effects on urban growth. The market access is a measure of economic advantages of urban geography. Cities have a high level of market access when they are located near a big metropolitan area. The market access, an geographical advantage, has a significant influence on employment growth. This effect is higher in Seoul metropolitan area than in the rest of South Korea. The market access effect is stronger on the employment growth of manufacturing industry than on that of service industry. This result is robust with various checks of, e.g., different definition of urban areas and different values of elasticity of transport costs. The policy makers in South Korea should consider geographical characteristics when they make policy decisions with respect to regional development.

발간사
요 약

제1장 서 론

제2장 도시의 인구분포와 성장
　제1절 도시의 공간적 범위
　제2절 인구분포와 지프의 법칙
　제3절 인구분포와 도시성장

제3장 도시의 시장접근성
　제1절 시장접근성의 이론적 토대
　제2절 국내 도시들의 시장접근성
　제3절 시장접근성과 도시성장

제4장 시장접근성이 도시성장에 미치는 영향
　제1절 실증모형
　제2절 자료
　제3절 분석 결과

제5장 맺음말

참고문헌
부 록
ABSTRACT