<p>A year or two ago, I recall watching a YouTube video that looked at the GDP of various cities and argued that there was a weak positive correlation between their elevation and their GDP. I can't find the video again and I haven't been able to find many supporting documents for this - I did find one about China but not the world at large. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11629-017-4393-0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11629-017-4393-0</a></p>

<p>Has anyone seen this argument and know the details?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-09T22:56:07.847Z
I've heard of examples of different altitudes affecting quality of natural resources such as metals and minerals, might be worth looking into that.
Brennan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-10T02:19:50.427Z
Not familiar with this literature, but one more reason off the top of my head is access to seaports which would help a city grow in the 18th–19th centuries.
Art
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-10T17:24:38.060Z
I've not seen the argument, but I would suggest there's a range of elevations for which this relationship is positive, outside of which it may be flat or negative.  And, there's probably a "third thing" that depends on elevation and is the true explanatory mechanism - such as the ideas the others have noted.
heh
<gdp>
Is there a relationship between the elevation/altitude of a city and its GDP?
WhiskeyHammer
# Is there a relationship between the elevation/altitude of a city and its GDP?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-12-09)

A year or two ago, I recall watching a YouTube video that looked at the GDP of various cities and argued that there was a weak positive correlation between their elevation and their GDP. I can't find the video again and I haven't been able to find many supporting documents for this - I did find one about China but not the world at large. <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11629-017-4393-0>

Has anyone seen this argument and know the details?

**Tags:** gdp

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I've heard of examples of different altitudes affecting quality of natural resources such as metals and minerals, might be worth looking into that.  
> **username_2**: Not familiar with this literature, but one more reason off the top of my head is access to seaports which would help a city grow in the 18th–19th centuries.  
> **username_3**: I've not seen the argument, but I would suggest there's a range of elevations for which this relationship is positive, outside of which it may be flat or negative.  And, there's probably a "third thing" that depends on elevation and is the true explanatory mechanism - such as the ideas the others have noted.  

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## 0 answers

