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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2018‒02‒12
seven papers chosen by Andreas Koch Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Fretz, Stephan; Parchet, Raphaël; Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric |
| Abstract: | We design a spatial model featuring workers embodied with heterogeneous skills. In equilibrium, locations with improved market access become relatively more attractive to the high-skilled, high-income earners. We then empirically analyze the effects of the construction of the Swiss highway network between 1960 and 2010 on the distribution of income at the local level, as well as on employment and commuting by education level. We find that the advent of a new highway access within 10km led to a long-term 19%-increase of the share of high-income taxpayers and a 6%-decrease of the share of low-income taxpayers. Results are similar for employment data decomposed by education level, as well as for in- and outcommuters. Highways also contributed to job and residential urban sprawl |
| Keywords: | transportation; highway; market access; income sorting |
| JEL: | D31 H54 O18 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:86575&r=geo |
| By: | Stephan Brunow; Antonia Birkeneder; Andrés Rodríguez-Pose |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the link between innovation and the endowments of creative and science-oriented STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ? workers at the level of the firm and at the city-/regional-level in Germany. It also looks into whether the presence of these two groups of workers has greater benefits for larger cities than smaller locations, thus justifying policies to attract these workers in order to make German cities 'smarter'. The empirical analysis is based on a probit estimation, covering 115,000 firm-level observations between 1998 and 2015. The results highlight that firms that employ creative and STEM workers are more innovative than those that do not. However, the positive connection of creative workers to innovation is limited to the boundaries of the firm, whereas that of STEM workers is as associated to the generation of considerable innovation spillovers. Hence, attracting STEM workers is more likely to end up making German cities smarter than focusing exclusively on creative workers. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Creative workers, STEM workers, Smart Cities, Spillover, Germany |
| JEL: | D22 J82 R12 J21 J24 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1808&r=geo |
| By: | Junwen Qiu; Wenjian Liu; Ning Ning |
| Abstract: | Based on endogenous economic growth models and the panel data of 31 regions in China, this paper explores the following four questions: Do spatial knowledge spillovers among regions exist? Do spatial knowledge spillovers promote regional innovative activities? What is the radiation range of spatial knowledge spillovers? Do external knowledge spillovers affect the evolution of regional innovations in the long run? The results show that spatial knowledge spillovers exist, and though the range of knowledge spillover is within 1000 kilometers in China, it pushes up regional innovative activities. Moreover, since developing regions benefit more from external knowledge spillovers than developed regions, it leads to the convergence of regional knowledge growth rate. |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1801.06936&r=geo |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IEP Paris - Sciences Po Paris - Institut d'études politiques de Paris); Sylvie Démurger (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Shi Li (School of Economics and Business Administration - Beijing Normal University) |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, migration, wage disparities, urban development, cities |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01638247&r=geo |
| By: | Armando J. G. Pires; José Pedro Pontes |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we used a framework due VON THUNEN (1966) and Friedrich LIST (1841) where manufacturing development is regarded as a process of “refining” primary raw materials in order to yield “lighter”, easier to carry products. If the artificial regulations which formerly kept industrial plants confined to core urban areas are abolished, then factories shift to rural areas in order to be close to the sources of farming raw materials, provided that the industrial transformation is sufficiently weight losing. However, the new productive sites for manufacturing will remain at a bounded distance from the Town, since they must bear the transport costs of shipping the output to the central meeting point where it must be transacted. Areas which are beyond this distance threshold are occupied by a traditional cottage economy, where goods are not carried to the Town but are rather produced for the household self-consumption. This framework also explains the observed fact that, within manufacturing, resource based branches are more centrally located in relation to core urban areas than other sectors. |
| Keywords: | Deindustrialization; Land Rent; Location Theory; Von Thunen; Economic Development |
| JEL: | O14 R11 R30 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp0252018&r=geo |
| By: | Benoît Schmutz (Ecole Polytechnique; CREST); Modibo Sidibé (Duke University; CREST) |
| Abstract: | We build a dynamic model of migrationwhere, in addition to usual mobility costs,workers face spatial frictions that decrease their ability to compete for distant job opportunities. We estimate the model on a matched employer-employee panel dataset describing labor market transitions within and between the 100 largest French cities. Our identification strategy is based on the premise that frictions affect the frequency of job transitions, while mobility costs impact the distribution of acceptedwages. We find that: (i) controlling for spatial frictions reduces mobility cost estimates by one order of magnitude; (ii) the urban wage premium is driven by better opportunities for local job-to-job transitions in larger cities; (iii) migration dramatically reduces lifetime inequalities due to initial location; (iv) labor mobility policies based on relocation subsidies are inefficient, unlike switching from nationwide to local minimum wages. |
| Keywords: | mobility costs; spatial frictions;migration; local labor markets |
| JEL: | J61 J64 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2017-48&r=geo |
| By: | Bell, Alex; Chetty, Raj; Jaravel, Xavier; Petkova, Neviana; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in America by using de-identified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records. We establish three sets of results. First, children from high-income (top 1%) families are ten times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. There are similarly large gaps by race and gender. Differences in innate ability, as measured by test scores in early childhood, explain relatively little of these gaps. Second, exposure to innovation during childhood has significant causal effects on children's propensities to become inventors. Growing up in a neighborhood or family with a high innovation rate in a specific technology class leads to a higher probability of patenting in exactly the same technology class. These exposure effects are gender-specific: girls are more likely to become inventors in a particular technology class if they grow up in an area with more female inventors in that technology class. Third, the financial returns to inventions are extremely skewed and highly correlated with their scientific impact, as measured by citations. Consistent with the importance of exposure effects and contrary to standard models of career selection, women and disadvantaged youth are as under-represented among highimpact inventors as they are among inventors as a whole. We develop a simple model of inventors' careers that matches these empirical results. The model implies that increasing exposure to innovation in childhood may have larger impacts on innovation than increasing the financial incentives to innovate, for instance by cutting tax rates. In particular, there are many “lost Einsteins” - individuals who would have had highly impactful inventions had they been exposed to innovation |
| Keywords: | inventor; America; innovation |
| JEL: | N0 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2017–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:86616&r=geo |