The impact of urban primacy on the urban labor force and the urban labor market in less developed economies

Abstract

Studies on the dynamics of populations of the developing countries in the last forty years or so, have shown that the rising growth rate of big cities has resulted in the introduction of "urban primacy". Urban primacy is both an economic and a demographic phenomenon. Empirical studies have already demonstrated that there exists an inverse relationship between urban primacy and the level of economic development. The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of "urban primacy" on the urban labor force and the urban labor market.

Two models are used. This first model relates a worker's "place" of work, that is, whether he or she is in the primate city or the other urban areas with certain socio-demographic characteristics of the worker. The second relates the urban "market sector" the worker is in, that is, whether in the modern or traditional sector, with the same set of socio-demographic characteristics. The empirical part of the study is based on data sets from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sudan and Ghana. Logistic regressions are used for the multivariate analysis.

The study indicates close similarities of results across countries. In all four countries, the younger, the more educated, and the male more than the female worker is more likely to be in the primate city than in the other urban areas and in the "modern" than in the "traditional" sector.

In Sudan and Ghana the migrant with urban origin more than the migrant with rural origin is more likely to be in the primate city. Results of the research also show that not only do female workers have a very small share of the urban labor market in general, but also their share is much smaller in the primate cities than in the other urban areas.

The implication of the results is that urban primacy is strongly related to the concentration and distribution of urban workers. Policy makers, through policy instruments, must insure that the concentration and/or distribution of trained manpower goes hand in hand with the overall socio-economic planning of the given country.