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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2026–09–07
five papers chosen by Andreas Koch, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki (Meiji Gakuin University); Toshihiro Okubo (Keio University); Eric Strobl (University of Bern) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate how the disruption of local agglomeration economies affects firm adjustment following a catastrophic urban disaster. To this end we digitalized a unique survey of firms in Tokyo City completed shortly after the earthquake and before any government reconstruction intervention. Using detailed information on the damage experienced by firms and the main good that they produced, as well as where they were located, we construct measures of losses of local agglomeration economies by identifying firms that either permanently ceased operation or relocated elsewhere. To identify causal impacts we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in fire destruction generated by the interaction between fire outbreak locations and local wind direction and speed immediately after the earthquake. Our econometrics results show that a loss of agglomeration economies as a result of the earthquake had a substantial impact on firms shutting down or relocating, with average effects of 13 and 11 per cent for these outcomes, respectively. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration economies; Natural disasters; Firm relocation; Firm exit; Urban resilience; Great Kanto Earthquake |
| JEL: | R12 R11 N95 L25 Q54 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0309 |
| By: | Boero, Riccardo (NILU - the Climate and Environmental Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | Fine-scale employment by industry is largely unavailable across European municipalities, yet it underpins regional economic analysis, environmental-economic extensions, and the regionalization of input--output accounts. This paper presents a mechanism-driven, constrained spatial disaggregation framework that estimates industry employment down to the Local Administrative Unit level while preserving official totals exactly at every geographical level. The economic mechanisms that shape where activity locates --- settlement, infrastructure and accessibility, natural-resource endowments, and inter-industry co-location --- are represented as a reproducible input dataset assembled from official and remote-sensing sources; a family of constrained allocation models, combined by a cross-validated convex ensemble, is trained on data-rich United States geographies and transferred to Europe under official Eurostat totals as constraints. Validated against independent national statistics in Italy, France, Germany, and Spain, the estimates reproduce the observed spatial distribution of employment within the held-out uncertainty of the models themselves, and the error does not inflate down the four-step disaggregation. The framework is open, inspectable, and reproducible, providing internally consistent fine-scale employment estimates wherever sub-national industry data are sparse. |
| Date: | 2026–07–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rqbts_v1 |
| By: | Huneeus, Federico; Del Valle Fuentes, Miguel Angel |
| Abstract: | To understand the geographic and sectoral impact of productivity, we build the first input-output matrix disaggregated at the geographic level within a country using unique administrative data harmonized to match national accounts. We use this data from Chile to calibrate a state-of-the-art general equilibrium quantitative trade model with production networks, labor mobility, firm selection, international and domestic trade, congestion of fixed factors, and knowledge diffusion. We consider two applications. First, we study the aggregate effects of local productivity shocks. We show that location-sector interactions are crucial: locations and sectors separately account for less than half of the dispersion in GDP elasticities from location-sector- specific productivity shocks. Geography-specific input-output linkages explain 16% of the dispersion, due to the role played by small and influential markets. Second, we analyze the exit of a large steel plant. We show that geographically disaggregated production linkages substantially increase the propagation of the plant exit. |
| Keywords: | Spatial economics;Geographic distribution;Input-output linkages;Trade |
| JEL: | F11 F17 R15 D57 E01 R12 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14713 |
| By: | Ager, Philipp; Pedersen, Maja; 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: | Economic geography; Location of economic activity |
| JEL: | N22 N93 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19316 |
| By: | Connor, Dylan Shane |
| Abstract: | We have entered a new era of soaring inequalities in income and wealth, patterns driven by a highly differentiated landscape of opportunity. This economic reality has propelled the geographies of intergenerational mobility and life chances to the forefront of the social science agenda. While geographers are increasingly engaging with these topics, the field of economic geography provides a critical, yet underutilized, theoretical foundation for this work. This chapter proposes the People-Experience-Places (PEP) framework, a model for analyzing the geographic differentiation of life chances across space and time. Drawing from core schools of thought within economic geography, the framework identifies the foundational mechanisms that produce spatially differentiated opportunity regimes and their impact on intergenerational mobility. The chapter concludes with a call for economic geographers to return to the core concerns of understanding and addressing inequalities in livelihood possibilities. |
| Date: | 2026–08–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ku6je_v1 |