Cities have faced a host of shocks throughout history, including earthquakes, hurricanes, coastal flooding, and storm surges, as well as wartime destruction, such as in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. This column looks at one of the most dramatic events in history, the atomic bombing of the city of Hiroshima in Japan, to explore the mechanisms that underlie the resilience of city structure. Strong agglomeration forces are required to explain the re-emergence of the city centre in the aftermath of the bombing, and they imply the existence of multiple equilibria. Public policymakers can play a key role in fostering the resilience of cities by helping to coordinate expectations about patterns of recovery.

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15 June 2025

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Vox EU

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https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/hiroshima-resilience-city-structure-after-atomic-bombing

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