A new general-equilibrium model that links together rural-to-urban migration, the externality effect of the average level of human capital, and agglomeration economies shows that in developing countries, unrestricted rural-to-urban migration reduces the average income of both rural and urban...

This survey reviews the existing literature, identifying the contribution of agriculture, schooling, and nutrition to economic growth and development over time and across countries. Particular attention is paid to the roles of improvements in agricultural technology and of the human capital of...

In this paper, we analyse the implications of labour market integration in a two-region model with local human capital externalities and congestion effects. We show that integration can be a double-edged sword. Integration and the ensuing agglomeration of skilled labour can reduce "real" income...

Where does adaptation to innovation take place? The supply of educated workers and local industry structure matter for the subsequent location of new work - that is, new types of labor-market activities that closely follow innovation. Using census 2000 microdata, the author shows that regions...

This paper studies how the changing geographic distribution of skilled workers in the US affects theoretical models that use Gibrat's law to explain the size distribution of cities. In the empirical literature, a divergence hypothesis holds that college share increases faster in cities where...

The stylized fact that the fraction of workers who are college graduates appears to increase more in US cities where the initial share is larger has attracted significant attention. Furthermore, more educated cities appear to grow faster. These two trends could portend the divergence of cities...

In this paper we survey the recent developments in two empirical literatures at the crossroads of labor and urban economics: Studies about localized human capital externalities (HCE) and about the urban wage premium (UWP). After surveying the methods and main results of each of these two...

In an economy experiencing endogenous economic growth and exogenous population growth, we explore two main themes: how urbanization affects efficiency of the growth process and how growth affects patterns of urbanization. Localized information spillovers promote agglomeration and human capital...

We consider a microfounded urban growth model with two regions and a mass of mobile workers to study interactions among growth, agglomeration, and urban congestion. Unlike previous research in the urban growth literature, we formulate the model as a one-shot game and take an evolutionary...

This paper studies the relative importance of history and expectations in the spatial economy through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Newly digitizing granular data on the distribution of economic activities within the city of Hiroshima, we first demonstrate the startling history-independence:...