Which choice most logically completes the text?

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In an analysis of medieval urbanization in Coventry, Erfurt, and other European settlements, researchers drew on modern urban scaling theory, which posits that population density in core urban areas increases as a city grows larger. Hypothesizing that this typical relationship would have differed in medieval settlements because of the constraining influence of strong hierarchical social structures (which are much less pronounced in modern cities) on social networking and economic integration—drivers of urban agglomeration—the team created a model that accounted for the presence of restrictive institutions. They found that the typically expected density-size relationship held for each of the 173 medieval settlements whose growth they...

the constraining influence of hierarchical medieval institutions likely had a significant effect on individuals in some social groupings but little to no effect on members of other social groupings.

although there tends to be a positive relationship between population size and development of core urban areas for both medieval settlements and modern cities, social institutions likely limited the rate at which population density increased in medieval settlements.

the social and economic dynamics that affect urban agglomeration were likely much different in medieval settlements than in modern cities, despite the similarity across time in population density patterns.

despite a change in the role of social structures over time, there is likely a notable consistency between medieval settlements and modern cities in population density patterns.