|
on Economic Geography |
|
Issue of 2014‒12‒03
eight papers chosen by Andreas Koch Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | R. Jason Faberman; Matthew Freedman |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal microdata to estimate the urban density premium for U.S. establishments, controlling for observed establishment characteristics and dynamic establishment behavior. Consistent with previous studies, we estimate a density premium between 6 and 10 percent, even after controlling for establishment composition, local skill mix, and the endogeneity of location choice. More importantly, we find that the estimated density premium is realized almost entirely at birth and is constant over the life of establishments. We find little evidence that the endogenous entry or exit of establishments can account for any of the estimated density premium. We interpret our results as implying that the returns to agglomeration diffuse within a city through a reallocation channel rather than through an increase in the productivity of existing firms. |
| Keywords: | urban density premium, dynamic agglomeration economies, establishment entry and exit |
| JEL: | R12 R30 D22 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:14-43&r=geo |
| By: | Marie-Estelle Binet (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes 1 - Université de Caen Basse-Normandie); François Facchini (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | This article tackles one central issue in the regional science literature: the persistence of regional disparities in unemployment within national economies. Our approach is original as Okun's coefficients are estimated for each of the 22 administrative French regions over the period 1990-2008, taking into account cross-regional disparities in a panel data specification. Estimates show that the coefficients exhibit regional differences. Indeed, Okun's law is confirmed in fourteen regions, although it does not hold in the other eight regions. Finally, region-specific factors that explain the results that are not significant are identified, and policies to reduce unemployment in French regions are examined. |
| Keywords: | Okun's law, panel data, French regions, spatial heterogeneity |
| Date: | 2013–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00812549&r=geo |
| By: | Schuetz, Jenny (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Abstract: | One of the most notable changes in the U.S. retail market over the past twenty years has been the rise of Big Box stores, retail chains characterized by physically large stores selling a wide range of consumer goods at discount prices. A growing literature has examined the impacts of Big Box stores on other retailers and consumers, but relatively little is known about how Big Box stores choose locations. Because Big Box stores offer highly standardized products and compete primarily on price, it is likely that they will seek to establish spatial monopolies, far from competitor stores. In this paper, I examine where new Big Box stores locate with respect to three types of existing establishments: own-firm stores, other retailers in the same product space (competitors), and retailers in other product spaces (complements). Results indicate that new Big Box stores tend to avoid existing own-firm stores and locate near complementary Big Box stores. However, there is little evidence that new Big Boxes avoid competitors. Firms in the same product space may not be perfect substitutes, or firms may prefer to share consumers in a desirable location rather than cede the entire market to competitor firms. |
| Keywords: | Retail location; spatial competition; agglomeration; Big Box stores |
| JEL: | L81 R12 R32 |
| Date: | 2014–10–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2014-81&r=geo |
| By: | Nathan, Max (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A growing number of studies find linkages between workforce diversity and business performance, but key aspects of this relationship remain unclear. First, within the firm, the role of 'top team' demography on firm outcomes is surprisingly little understood. Second, urban location may amplify firm-level processes, but almost no studies test these firm-area interactions. I deploy English cross-sectional data to explore these issues, using latent class analysis to tackle firm-level heterogeneity. I find evidence of positive links in some firm classes, both linear and non-linear, and suggestive evidence that ethnic top team diversity is amplified in the London city-region. |
| Keywords: | firm-level analysis, business performance, diversity, ethnicity, gender, cities |
| JEL: | J15 L21 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8462&r=geo |
| By: | Nathaniel Baum-Snow; Fernando Ferreira |
| Abstract: | Recovery of causal relationships in data is an essential part of scholarly inquiry in the social sciences. This chapter discusses strategies that have been successfully used in urban and regional economics for recovering such causal relationships. Essential to any successful empirical inquiry is careful consideration of the sources of variation in the data that identify parameters of interest. Interpretation of such parameters should take into account the potential for their heterogeneity as a function of both observables and unobservables. |
| JEL: | R0 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20535&r=geo |
| By: | Hunt Allcott; Daniel Keniston |
| Abstract: | Does natural resource production benefit producer economies, or does it instead create a "Natural Resource Curse," perhaps as Dutch Disease crowds out the manufacturing sector? We combine a new panel dataset of oil and gas production and reserves with county-level aggregate outcomes and restricted-access Census of Manufactures microdata to estimate how oil and gas booms have affected local economic growth in the U.S. since the 1960s. We find that a boom that doubles national oil and gas employment increases total employment by 2.9 percent in a county with one standard deviation larger oil and gas endowment. Despite substantial migration, wages also rise. Notwithstanding, manufacturing employment and output are actually pro-cyclical with oil and gas booms, because many manufacturers in resource-abundant counties supply inputs to the oil and gas sector, while many others sell locally-traded goods and benefit from increases in local demand. Manufacturers' revenue productivity also grows during booms, especially in linked and local industries, but there is no evidence that output prices rise. The results demonstrate how a meaningful share of manufacturers produce locally traded goods, and they highlight how linkages to natural resources can be a driver of manufacturing growth. |
| JEL: | J2 L6 O4 Q43 R1 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20508&r=geo |
| By: | Tubadji, Annie (University of Regensburg); Gheasi, Masood (VU University Amsterdam); Nijkamp, Peter (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an operationalization of a mixed Bourdieu–Mincer-type model that seeks to find evidence for individual and local cultural capital effects on human capital 'ability'. We aim to compare these effects for native workers and immigrants (as well as between immigrants themselves) in a locality. The main objective of the paper is twofold: 1) to examine how ethnic background affects immigrants' schooling results; and 2) to explore the link between the wage differential of immigrant young workers entering the labour market in the context of a locally varying cultural milieu. Our study utilises the 2007–2009 data set for higher professional education (termed HBO in Dutch) graduates from Maastricht University. We use a two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation method to analyse empirically a system of two equations. In the first Bourdieu-type equation, individual cultural capital, together with school type/quality, explains the individual's schooling achievement. Next, this 'schooling achievement' is employed as an explanatory variable in the second Mincer-type equation, which examines wage differential effects. Our Mincer-type equation is next augmented with a control for the local cultural milieu. We find evidence of ethnic segregation with regard to the quality of educational institution to which immigrants have access, which naturally explains part of the wage differential effect. Moreover, we find that local cultural capital determines the size of the wage gap. |
| Keywords: | immigration, wage differential, cultural capital, local cultural milieu, Mincer equation |
| JEL: | Z10 O31 O43 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8460&r=geo |
| By: | Murakami, Tomoaki; Nakajima, Shinsaku; Takahashi, Taro; Nishihara, Yukinaga; Imai, Asako; Kikushima, Ryousuke; Sato, Takeshi |
| Keywords: | Farmers Market, land use, program evaluation, geographically weighted regressions, difference-in-differences, GIS, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Q12, Q15, R32, R58, |
| Date: | 2014–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170668&r=geo |