|
on Economic Geography |
|
Issue of 2024–11–18
seven papers chosen by Andreas Koch, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Giulia Iannone (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Andrea Ascani (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Alessandra Faggian (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Alexandra Tsvetkova (OECD Trento Centre for Local Development) |
| Abstract: | There is an increasing need for today’s economies to be both productive and resilient, but the interplay between these two fundamental factors for economic growth has been neglected in the literature. This paper aims at filling this gap by adopting an evolutionary framework for the joint study of productivity and resilience and proposes a regional taxonomy based on characteristics of the industrial structure. Data on European regions at the NUTS2 level are used first to classify regions as productive and/or resilient and then to analyze how certain regional features, in particular related and unrelated variety, relate to a combined measure of productivity and resilience. Results show that the spatial distribution of productive and resilient regions follows a core– periphery pattern and that related and unrelated variety have significant but heterogeneous effects on regions’ economic performance. |
| Keywords: | productivity, regional resilience, industrial structure, relatedness |
| JEL: | B52 O4 R1 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahy:wpaper:wp44 |
| By: | Lena Abou El-Komboz; Thomas A. Fackler; Moritz Goldbeck; Thomas Fackler |
| Abstract: | Software engineering is prototypical of knowledge work in the digital economy and exhibits strong geographic concentration, with Silicon Valley as the epitome of a tech cluster. We investigate productivity effects of knowledge worker agglomeration. To overcome existing measurement challenges, we track individual contributions in software engineering projects between 2015 and 2021 on GitHub, the by far largest online code repository platform. Our findings demonstrate individual productivity increases by 2.8 percent with a ten percent increase in cluster size, the share of the software engineering community in a technology field located in the same city. Instrumental variable and dynamic estimation results suggest these productivity effects are causal. Productivity gains from cluster size growth are strongest for clusters hosting between 0.67 and 13.5% of a community. We observe a disproportionate activity increase in high-quality, large, and leisure projects and for co-located teams. Overall, software engineers benefit from productivity spillovers due to physical proximity to a large number of peers in their field. |
| Keywords: | high-skilled labor, geography, innovation, peer effects, collaboration |
| JEL: | D62 J24 O33 O36 R32 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11277 |
| By: | Scott Fulford (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau); Fabio Schiantarelli (Boston College; IZA) |
| Abstract: | We construct the first estimates of U.S. county nominal and real GDP by broadly defined industrial sectors from 1870 to 2018. Counties tended to converge from 1870 until 1970, but subsequently grew apart. Falling inequality between states explains most of the fall in county inequality from 1870 to 1970. After 1970, increasing inequality within states explains most of the overall inequality increase. Before 1970, more productive states were more equal, after 1970 more productive states were more unequal. U.S. geographic inequality is no longer primarily about differences between regions or states, but instead about differences within them. We show how the changing industrial composition affects inequality. The path to riches has changed from manufacturing to tradable services. From 1870 to 1950, manufacturing became increasingly concentrated in the richest counties. The manufacturing share is now the highest in middle income counties, while the richest counties increasingly produce tradable services. Manufacturing’s contribution to inequality is the largest before 1960 and its decline is the main explanation for the fall in inequality from 1930 to 1970, while the growth of tradable services and their concentration in top metropolitan areas contribute to the nominal inequality increase after 1970. Agriculture used to be the primary activity of the poorest counties. Now, the poorer the county, the larger the share in government, education, and health. Government services decrease county inequality. We show that population growth and education used to be strongly pro-convergence, but after 1970 became neutral or anti-convergence. At the same time, agglomeration effects in manufacturing and tradable services appear to have increased. |
| Keywords: | Regional Growth; Inequality; Productivity; Industrial Composition; County growth; United States; GDP |
| JEL: | R12 O4 N9 |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:1081 |
| By: | Francesca Ghinami (Gran Sasso Science Institute) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the spatial heterogeneity that factors misallocation reveals in nine EU-member countries (Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland) during the years 2011-2020. Misallocation, as in the degree of efficiency with which inputs are allocated across firms, is increasingly regarded as one main source of aggregate productivity differences across countries. Nevertheless, its within-country spatial and regional dimensions are still largely overlooked, notwithstanding numerous reasons for allocative efficiency to vary across different administrative units. This article aims at filling this gap by firstly performing an exploratory analysis of allocative efficiencies at different levels of territorial aggregation (NUTS0-3). Secondly, it provides evidence for the across-regions disparities in allocative efficiency to account for large shares of aggregate misallocation for all the examined European countries. Finally, it investigates and finds support for the hypothesis that variations in local institutional quality may help explaining regional differences in allocative efficiencies |
| Keywords: | Total factor productivity, Misallocation, Regional disparities, Institutional Quality |
| JEL: | D24 L25 O47 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahy:wpaper:wp43 |
| By: | Fetzer, Thiemo (University of Warwick & Bonn and affiliated with CEPR, CAGE, NIESR, ECONtribute, Grantham Institute.); Edenhofer, Jacob (University of Oxford); Garg, Prashant (Imperial College London) |
| Abstract: | Support for right-wing populist parties is characterised by considerable regional heterogeneity and especially concentrated in regions that have experienced economic decline. It remains unclear, however, whether the spatial externalities of local decline, including homelessness and crime, boost support for populist parties, even among those not directly affected by such decline. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap in two ways. First, we gather novel data on a particularly visible form of local decline, high-street vacancies, that comprise 83, 000 premises in England and Wales. Second, we investigate the influence of local decline on support for the right-wing populist UK Independence Party (UKIP) between 2009 and 2019. We find a significant positive association between high-street vacancy rates and UKIP support. These results enhance our understanding of how changes in the lived environment shape political preferences and behaviour, particularly in relation to right-wing populism. |
| Keywords: | Local Economic Conditions, Populism, High-street Vacancies, Unemployment, Urban Transformation JEL Classification: D72, R11, R12, R23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:716 |
| By: | Ager, Philipp; Pedersen, Maja U.; Sharp, Paul; Tsoukli, Xanthi |
| Abstract: | This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the Great Fire’s effects on London’s economic geography. Our analysis reveals both continuity and change. There was a swift postfire recovery accompanied by some shift in economic activity towards the City of Westminster by 1690, with markets spreading outside the City, but financial services largely remaining inside. Analysis of London Hearth Tax records further illustrates a significant change in the wealth distribution, with wealthier households returning to fire-impacted areas, reshaping the city’s housing and social structure. |
| Keywords: | Great Fire of London, Economic geography, Location of economic activity JEL Classification: N23, N93 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:719 |
| By: | Aakash Kalyani (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis); Nicholas Bloom (Stanford University); Marcela Carvalho (Harvard University); Tarek Hassan (Boston University); Josh Lerner (Harvard University); Ahmed Tahoun (London Business School) |
| Abstract: | We identify phrases associated with novel technologies using textual analysis of patents, job postings, and earnings calls, enabling us to identify four stylized facts on the diffusion of jobs relating to new technologies. First, the development of economically impactful new technologies is geographically highly concentrated, more so even than overall patenting: 56% of the most economically impactful technologies come from just two U.S. locations, Silicon Valley and the Northeast Corridor. Second, as the technologies mature and the number of related jobs grows, hiring spreads geographically. But this process is very slow, taking around 50 years to disperse fully. Third, while initial hiring in new technologies is highly skill biased, over time the mean skill level in new positions declines, drawing in an increasing number of lower-skilled workers. Finally, the geographic spread of hiring is slowest for higher-skilled positions, with the locations where new technologies were pioneered remaining the focus for the technology's high-skill jobs for decades. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Geography, Innovation, R and D |
| JEL: | O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2024–06–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:inetwp222 |