In revisiting whether the productivity of cities is linked most directly to city size or population density, Forbes contributor Joel Kotkin cites SFI research.
"Many retro-urban theorists maintain that high density is the key to urban prosperity," Kotkin writes. "These theorists often point for justification to Santa Fe Institute research that, they claim, links productivity with density. Yet in reality it does nothing of the kind. Instead the study emphasizes that population size, not compactness, is the decisive factor."
Read the article in Forbes (April 16, 2013)
Read the article in The Daily Beast (April 8, 2013)
More about SFI's cities research
More about SFI's project "The hidden laws that pervade complex biological and social phenomena," supported by the John Templeton Foundation