how credible is GaWC inventory of world cities?

An influential attempt to define and categorise world cities was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC) [1], based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The roster was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 [2] and ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world city, termed Alpha, Beta and Gamma for their relative influence. Each level contains two or three sub-ranks. There is also a fourth level of cities that show potential to become world cities in the future. This classification is not yet authoritative, but is certainly useful as a starting point for discussion.

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The Alpha (most influential) world cities were divided into two sub-ranks: 12 points: London, New York City, Paris, Tokyo 10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore, Toronto The Beta (major) World Cities are: 9 Points: San Francisco, Sydney, Zurich 8 Points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, Sao Paulo 7 Points: Moscow, Seoul The Gamma (minor) World Cities are: 6 Points: Amsterdam, Boston, Caracas, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Osaka, Prague, Santiago, Taipei, Washington 5 Points: Bangkok, Beijing, Montreal, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw 4 Points: Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Miami, Minneapolis, Munich, Shanghai, Tehran There is also a category for cities showing strong evidence of becoming world cities, these are: 3 Points: Athens, Auckland, Dublin, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Lyon, Mumbai, New Delhi, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Vienna and cities showing some evidence: 2 Points: Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Birmingham, Bogota, Bratislava, Brisbane, Bucharest, Cairo, Cleveland, Cologne, Detroit, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City, Kiev, Lima, Lisbon, Manchester, Montevideo, Oslo, Riyadh, Rotterdam, Seattle, Stuttgart, The Hague, Vancouver and cities displaying minimal evidence: 1 Point: Adelaide, Antwerp, Arhus, Baltimore, Bangalore, Bologna, Brasilia, Calgary, Cape Town, Colombo, Columbus, Dresden, Edinburgh, Genoa, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Guangzhou, Hanoi,Jerusalem, Kansas City, Leeds, Lille, Marseille, Richmond, St Petersburg, Tashkent, Tehran, Tijuana, Turin, Utrecht, Wellington

>There is a schematic map of the GaWC cities at their website, [3], which shows clearly that the great majority of their defined cities lie in the Northern Hemisphere. The GaWC is a somewhat subjective ranking, as is any other, but the top four listed cities at least match those commonly considered the major world cities.>