Using a large dataset on the population of Spanish municipalities between 1877 and 2001, this paper analyses how their initial size and the presence of neighbouring urban locations influence subsequent population growth and how these links have evolved over time. Our results show that initial size is negatively related to population growth, except in the 1960s and 1970s when this relationship becomes positive. Likewise, the presence of neighbouring urban locations limited local population growth in the late nineteenth century, a negative effect that persisted, but at a diminishing rate, until the second half of the twentieth century. The influence of nearby cities became increasingly positive from then onwards, and especially so during the 1970s.

本文使用有关1877年至2001年西班牙城市人口的大型数据集，分析了西班牙城市的初始规模和邻近城市的存在如何影响随后的人口增长，以及这些联系如何随着时间演变。我们的结果表明，初始规模与人口增长呈负相关，除非在1960年代和1970年代这种关系为正。同样，邻近城市的存在限制了19世纪后期当地人口的增长，这种负面影响一直持续到20世纪下半叶，但这种影响的速度一直在下降。从那时起，附近城市的影响力变得越来越积极，尤其是在1970年代。