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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2019‒07‒22
eleven papers chosen by Andreas Koch Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Alfredo Cartone; Geoffrey JD Hewings; Paolo Postiglione |
| Abstract: | The presence of \b{eta}-convergence in European regions is an important issue to be analyzed. In this paper, we adopt a quantile regression approach in analyzing economic convergence. While previous work has performed quantile regression at the national level, we focus on 187 European NUTS2 regions for the period 1981-2009 and use spatial quantile regression to account for spatial dependence. |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1906.04613&r=all |
| By: | Stephan E. Maurer; Ferdinand Rauch |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 changed market access and influenced the economic geography of the United States. We compute shipment distances with and without the canal from each US county to each other US county and to key international ports and compute the resulting change in market access. We relate this change to population changes in 20-year intervals from 1880 to 2000. We find that a 1 percent increase in market access led to a total increase of population by around 6 percent. We compute similar elasticities for wages, land values and immigration from out of state. When we decompose the effect by industry, we find that tradable (manufacturing) industries react faster than non-tradable (services), with a fairly similar aggregate effect. |
| Keywords: | market access, Panama Canal, trade shock, gravity |
| JEL: | F1 R1 O1 N72 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1633&r=all |
| By: | F. Cerina; E. Dienesch; A. Moro; M. Rendall |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the allocation of skills across space and time in the U.S. We start by documenting two facts on the phenomenon of employment polarization - i) it is stronger in larger vs smaller cities and ii) it is mainly driven by heads rather than hours. We then build a spatial general equilibrium model in which workers with heterogeneous skills choose the location in which they live and work. The model provides a theory based measure of skills that we use to investigate how the skill distribution changes across time and space in the U.S. Consistent with the empirical evidence on employment polarization by city size, we find that between 1980 and 2008 larger cities display a higher increase in the fraction of both high- and low-skilled workers relative to smaller cities, which in turn display a higher increase in the fraction of medium- skilled. We calibrate the model to evaluate the role of technology and find that faster skill-biased technological change in larger cities can account for a substantial fraction of the differential emergence of fat tails and employment polarization between large and small cities. |
| Keywords: | Employment Polarization;Spatial Sorting;City Sizes |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201909&r=all |
| By: | Michael Bailey; Patrick Farrell; Theresa Kuchler; Johannes Stroebel |
| Abstract: | We use anonymized and aggregated data from Facebook to explore the spatial structure of social networks in the New York metro area. We highlight the importance of transportation infrastructure in shaping urban social networks by showing that travel time and travel costs are substantially stronger predictors of social connectedness between zip codes than geographic distance is. We also document significant heterogeneity in the geographic breadth of social networks across New York zip codes, and show that much of this heterogeneity is explained by the ease of access to public transit, even after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics of the zip codes' residents. When we group zip codes with strong social ties into hypothetical communities using an agglomerative clustering algorithm, we find that geographically non-contiguous locations are grouped into socially connected communities, again highlighting that geographic distance is an imperfect proxy for urban social connectedness. We also explore the social connections between New York zip codes and foreign countries, and highlight how these are related to past migration movements. |
| JEL: | R1 R3 R4 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26029&r=all |
| By: | Santiago Perez Balsalobre; Carlos Llano Verduras; Jorge Diaz-Lanchas (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | Economic complexity indicators provide a better understanding of the long-term determinants of countries’ economic growth. However, they do not account for intra-national spatial heterogeneity, even when regions, and not only countries, differ tremendously in their productivity. This paper tries to fill this gap by developing a methodology to estimate economic complexity at the subnational level using a unique trade database on intra-national trade flows for Spain. Specifically, we calculate international and intra-national economic complexity indicators for the provinces of Spain (NUTS-3) for the period running from 1995 to 2016. We find that regions tend to differ in complexity not only in time but also in their international and intra-national trade exposures. We also show that indicators that incorporate both types of trade flows are better predictors of future GDP growth. These findings shed light on the determinants of regional convergence patterns. |
| Keywords: | rhomolo, region, growth, complexity, Spain |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:termod:201905&r=all |
| By: | Brinkman, Jeffrey (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Lin, Jeffrey (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | Freeway revolts were widespread protests across the U.S. following early urban Interstate construction in the mid-1950s. We present theory and evidence from panel data on neighborhoods and travel behavior to show that diminished quality of life from freeway disamenities inspired the revolts, affected the allocation of freeways within cities, and changed city structure. First, actual freeway construction diverged from initial plans in the wake of the growing freeway revolts and subsequent policy responses, especially in central neighborhoods. Second, freeways caused slower growth in population, income, and land values in central areas, but faster growth in outlying areas. These patterns suggest that in central areas, freeway disamenity effects exceeded small access benefits. Third, in a quantitative general equilibrium spatial model, the aggregate benefits from burying or capping freeways are large and concentrated downtown. This result suggests that targeted mitigation policies could improve welfare and helps explain why opposition to freeways is often observed in central neighborhoods. Disamenities from freeways, versus their commuting benefits, likely played a significant role in the decentralization of U.S. cities. |
| Keywords: | central cities; amenities; commuting costs; suburbanization; highways |
| JEL: | N72 N92 O18 Q51 R14 R23 R41 R42 |
| Date: | 2019–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:19-29&r=all |
| By: | Merve Aksoylar Baysoy (Koç University); Sumru Altug (American University of Beirut) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the role of spillovers in economic growth for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by accounting for spatial effects. Such spatial effects in growth for the MENA countries may arise on the basis of geography, bilateral trade or institutional similarities. We explicitly model such interactions using a spatial econometric approach and ask how much they are likely to matter for growth externalities and spillover effects. To detect spatial dependence in growth rates, we make of the spatial lag model as well as the model with spatially autocorrelated error terms. Using results from the spatial econometrics literature, we test for the existence and type of spatial dependence. Our results indicate that the economic growth of a MENA country is positively affected by the economic growth of countries that are geographically close and that have similar institutional characteristics rather than through the growth of its trade partners. |
| Keywords: | Growth regressions, spillover effects, spatial econometrics, MENA countries |
| JEL: | O40 R11 F43 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1909&r=all |
| By: | Sylvain Dejean (CE.RE.GE - CEntre de REcherche en GEstion - ULR - Université de La Rochelle - IAE Poitiers - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Poitiers - Université de Poitiers - Université de Poitiers) |
| Abstract: | This article aims to estimate the cost of distance in the geographical flow of crowdfunding, and to show how social ties between the 94 French metropolitan regions shape the geography of funding. Our analysis draws upon a unique database provided by the French leader in rewards-based crowdfunding. The main result is that the elasticity of distance remains important (around 0.5), and that social ties between regions determine the flow of funding. Doubling the number of immigrants in a region increases the number of investments by 24% and reduces the impact of distance. |
| Keywords: | Crowdfunding,economic geography,social networks,gravity |
| Date: | 2019–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01645147&r=all |
| By: | Alessandra, Michelangeli; Umut, Türk |
| Abstract: | Intergenerational mobility refers to children moving up from the social class position held by their parents. Previous studies indicate family background as one of the major determinants of socioeconomic mobility and, in general, of individual life chances. This paper extends the standard approach to measure intergenerational social mobility by examining the role of cities where offspring grew up. The idea is that cities can provide resources and opportunities able to increase the chance of employment and status attainment. We assess intergenerational mobility in Italy, the most immobile country in Europe together with Greece and Portugal. We use a data survey provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), which provides information on the individual-level track of Italian students’ life path from high school to occupation. We merge these data with city-level data on economic conditions, human capital, and social capital. We distinguish between students who attended university in the same province where they presumably grew up and those who migrated to another province for higher education. This allows us to test whether migration affects the shift in occupation type and, if so, which characteristics of cities enhance upward mobility. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational social mobility; spatial mobility; cities. |
| JEL: | J62 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:397&r=all |
| By: | Azarhoushang, Behzad; Wu, Jennifer Pédussel; Zaroki, Shahryar |
| Abstract: | Following the 1978 economic reforms, China gradually became first amongst developing countries and the second in the world, after the USA, in terms of stock of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Sustained GDP growth, a high rate of capital return and brisk economic development made China one of the best destinations for foreign capital; however, the benefits of this spectacular growth have not been evenly distributed throughout the various Chinese regions. There are many low-income and poor economic performing provinces in China although poverty is mainly concentrated in the inland regions. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a series of policies have been designed and implemented by the Chinese government to encourage foreign company investment in central and western provinces to help decrease the regional inequality with limited successes. This paper uses Panel Least Squares method to empirically analyze the impact of industrial sector FDI on Chinese regional inequality during 2003-2013. The resulting analysis shows the connection between FDI in industrial sectors and regional inequality in China. In particular, regional inequality affects FDI location choices. The findings show that economic and non-economic indicators such as human capital, infrastructure, per capita income, and government policies affect regional inequality and foreign firms' location choices. Despite government policies to support inland regional economic development, foreign firms still prefer to invest in coastal provinces further illustrating the effects of clusters in this region. |
| Keywords: | FDI,China,Panel,regional inequality,MNCs |
| JEL: | F21 F23 F16 C33 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1192019&r=all |
| By: | Véronique Lucas-Gabrielli (IRDES Institut de recherche et documentation en économie de la santé); Catherine Mangeney (ORS Île-de-France) |
| Abstract: | L’un des enjeux majeurs des politiques de santé des pays développés consiste à garantir à la population une égale accessibilité aux soins sur leur territoire. La France, comme de nombreux pays de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), est confrontée à des problèmes de raréfaction et de répartition inégale de la ressource humaine en santé. Les pouvoirs publics français tentent d’inciter les professionnels de santé à exercer dans des zones qualifiées comme?insuffisamment dotées en offre de soin. L’identification de ces zones devient un enjeu majeur et une gageure car, comme le soulignent Handy et Niemeier (1997), «?le plus grand obstacle à l’utilisation du concept d’accessibilité réside dans la difficulté de le traduire sous forme d’indicateurs opérationnels?». Pour mesurer la dimension spatiale de l’accessibilité, la méthode du «?Two-step floating catchment area?» (2SFCA) fait l’objet d’une convergence d’intérêt dans la littérature géographique internationale et s’est imposée dans le paysage institutionnel français puisque son adaptation (Accessibilité potentielle localisée (APL)) au contexte français sert de socle à la définition des zonages déficitaires en médecins généralistes institués en 2017-2018 dans l’ensemble des régions françaises. Nous faisons ici évoluer l’indicateur en réduisant l’échelle géographique d’observation, en prenant en compte de la dimension sociale des besoins, en intégrant au modèle les pratiques multimodales de déplacements et en considérant l’effet systémique des interactions entre l’offre et la demande à l’échelle régionale. Les résultats sont présentés sous forme de scénarios pour analyser les impacts de chacune des hypothèses retenues. Il en ressort que le changement de l’échelle d’observation tend à diminuer globalement les niveaux médians d’accessibilité tout en mettant en évidence des disparités infra-communales notables. D’autre part, les hypothèses de quantification de l’offre et de besoins de soins, de même que les pratiques de mobilité, impactent très sensiblement les résultats et ce, de manière différenciée selon les départements et selon les territoires. L’innovation méthodologique consistant à tenir compte du fonctionnement régional systémique (la probabilité de recours aux médecins dépend à la fois de sa proximité et de sa disponibilité, cette dernière étant dépendante – par effet de chaîne – du nombre de patients qui potentiellement pourraient y avoir recours, etc.) est celle qui modifie le plus les résultats. La mise au point de ce type d’indicateur révèle l’importance de mobiliser - dans un mouvement d’aller et retour – aussi bien des phases de calcul statistique et de représentation géographique des résultats à différentes échelles que des phases d’échanges, avec les partenaires institutionnels et/ou locaux (Agences régionales de santé (ARS), élus locaux, professionnels de santé, usagers). Cela afin d’affiner et de valider les hypothèses retenues en les confrontant aux ressentis des usagers du territoire, mais aussi, éventuellement, de prendre en compte les spécificités de certains territoires. |
| Keywords: | Soins primaires, Accessibilité, Densité, Distance. |
| JEL: | I18 R53 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irh:wpaper:dt80&r=all |